I'll point out that before the whole Web 2.0 and "social networking" thing happened, we had... forums. Which were actually communities. You would actually recog

I'll point out that before the whole Web 2.0 and "social networking" thing happened, we had... forums. Which were actually communities. You would actually recognise names, grow a connection with people, probably wind up messaging them through PM systems and maybe getting their Messenger handles. Now, to replace forums, we have... Reddit and Hacker News. Where even though you might recognise nicknames once in a while, you're unlikely to PM them, and in the case of HN that's actively impossible. And so people desire some system which gives them some sense of community, which Twitter (along with Tumblr, and a couple of other sites) gives them.