Image by naraekim0801 via Flickr/Creative Commons

As I mentioned in my post about what I’m into, I watch Scandal religiously. I’ve found, however, that I don’t enjoy it as much this season as I did last season. Could be the plot. Could be that there’s still not enough Harrison. (Kerry Washington, who stars in the leading role on Scandal, is pregnant in real life, and I want Shonda Rhimes to work that into the script and let it be Harrison’s, though I know that’s way out of the story line.)

But I attribute my decrease in enthusiasm for the show to my lack of participation in the #ScandalParty on Twitter. Black Twitter goes in on Thursday nights, and I used to join the crowd. If I hadn’t posted a single tweet all week, I would post on Thursday nights. I enjoyed the interaction with strangers and the return to community viewing—a huge group of people watching, commenting on and experiencing the same thing at the same time. We might not all feel the same way about what we see, but we all get to participate. I miss that when I excuse myself from the #ScandalParty and use my hands, and that precious hour of the day, to twist my hair or wash the dishes. If I had to do my hair instead of tweet while I lived at home, I at least had my mother’s commentary to enhance the experience. Living alone that’s lost.

I’m sure I wouldn’t be taking as much time to analyze this as I am if it weren’t reflective of a theme I keep seeing repeated in my life lately: almost everything is better shared. (We read about a radical lesbian feminist group called The Furies in my History of U.S. Feminisms class recently. According to their theory, they maybe should’ve shared toothbrushes. I disagree.) Though it seems superficial and a complete waste of time, Twitter can provide community, especially to people like me who are otherwise alone all the time, and community enhances experience. (Why am I alone? I’ve talked about that here with regard to romantic relationships and here with regard to friendship.)

So if you see me on Friday morning with my hair looking a mess, it’s because I needed to feel like I had some friends around.