Setting Up A Text Journal: (804) 885-3699
UPDATE:
Bad news... this little Text Journal experiment is shutting down on May 15th, 2019... 😔
The Good news is that the team behind it might open source the code. 🤗
I had a blast sharing through this medium and still stand behind how honest it feels. If anything it has made me more comfortable with sharing deeper and honest thoughts, more like how I used to pre 2015. I will aim to keep that going on twitter. If anything this proves the validity of small (non scaled) social networks. I heard a rumor last year that Dave Morin’s Path might get re-born. Here’s to hoping!
A few weeks ago, I saw a post by Josh Miller on Twitter, who is formerly the Director of Product for the Obama White House and previously sold Branch to Facebook. Here is the tweet:
What really resonated with me in Josh’s message is the lack of intimacy in social platforms these days. And so I signed up for his experiment by texting the number in his post. I started to receive Josh’s text journal updates over the next few weeks. Josh’s texts felt authentic and honest in a time when that connection seems hard to find on existing platforms.
To me, that level of unpolished honesty used to be the norm in the early days of Facebook and Twitter. It’s what made us all feel so connected. And the last time I felt that, was during the early days of Meerkat, which I wrote about back in 2015 on Huff Po. It is refreshing every time I see it.
And so I am going to set up my own text journal and join in on the grand experiment.
You can subscribe to my journal by texting anything (eg. "Hello!") to:
(804) 885-3699
You'll start receiving texts with my updates! Text "stop" to opt out. I can't see who subscribes, who unsubscribes, or any replies you send! DM Me via my Twitter to reply to any of my texts. Pro tip, you can silence the text notifications and just read them on your own time if you would like.
It feels strange at first to share with a group of unknown people, but it also feels liberating in a way. Maybe this is what Twitter was supposed to stay as back when it was SMS based. I am excited to try this out! Hope you enjoy too!