Social media is a paradox of distraction and being in the loop. You head to social media because you want to be taken away from your reality, but you also turn to it to be clued into the discourse. These are two vastly different impulses but they take you to the same destination. It’s not always easy to parse out which one you want in each particular moment, too. Some days you just want to be swept away and to see something that has nothing to do with your surroundings. And some days you feel like you want to be part of a larger conversation, so you can have something to talk about with your coworkers.

Twitter is a platform where you can do both in one breath. One minute, you’re seeing a tweet about a baby hippo and your day has been made infinitely better. The next minute, you’re being informed about something horrible happening in your country.