@toddcudd You've put your finger on something important. All social media platforms guide us towards the desire for more and more popularity because it's the best way for them to make money and encourage the addiction of likes.
It seems that even here people aren't generally after conversation. Of the number of replies I got to my question you're the only person who has come back to me after their initial comment. We live in a 'look at me' culture, which seems to discourage such things sadly.

@sunnywillow It's really easy to get sucked into online 'places' not just Twitter. I guess they're set up to do just that, so we keep going back. Just like an abusive relationship, as you suggest. It's a good comparison.
Perhaps you could connect with those people you miss in other ways.

@smelltouchfeel That's interesting. Thanks. All really valid reasons. Not sure how I managed to miss these possibilities.

@toddcudd It's funny, because I was (and still am) looking for all those things, but never found it at Twitter. Maybe I didn't look hard enough. Though with the toxicity maybe it was a good thing in the end.

@hammancheez Social media companies have made vast fortunes on the back of manipulating us into seeking that dopamine hit.

@Eutropia For some reason I couldn't find conversations I was interested in there, though there were other places where you could (back then, it's been intentionally made a lot harder since. I was a content creator at YouTube for years and for quite some time the community and communication was great, until Google decided it didn't like that model and made algorithms that prevented it.

@stoppelmann It depends. Something which is interesting at the time.

@Ciaraioch 😂