It’s a warm Wednesday night in the middle of the summer after my senior year of high school. I’d been a Redditor for years, so when friends pushed me to sign up for Twitter, I was originally hesitant. It seemed to be dominated by ADHD & short attention spans. It was confusing, and I barely understood the process of tagging or replying to another user.

However, after discovering @DanielleMorrill’s @cattermark account soon after I signed up, I felt right at home. You see, these cat gifs & clever captions, which seemed to be new to Twitter, had been on Reddit for years.

So, naturally, I figured I would try one of my own (with help from my girlfriend, whose sense of humor is far better than my own)…

To my surprise, it was retweeted by both Danielle Morrill and her cattermark account. The favorites rolled in, and both of her accounts followed me.

Encouraged by my success, I tried again, referencing a popular parody account and the rumored owner, Darren Curtis…

It was favorited by @cattermark, but nothing else. However, to my surprise, a few minutes later, this was posted…

Needless to say, I was shocked. So, in the spirit of the night, I responded…

But Danielle is a good sport, and this rolled in a few minutes later…

Needless to say, I had a fun night. And I think I finally understand the appeal of Twitter. In normal circumstances, you need an introduction to meet someone in the upper echelon. You need to run into them at your local Starbucks, or find their email on an old press release.

However, on Twitter, it’s as simple as finding their account. And while the 140 character limit may seem arbitrary, it forces the writer to trim his or her novel into a concise blurb, which is efficient when you’re trying to catch the attention of the über-powerful.

A powerful tool indeed, even if it’s used just for cat gifs.