Last week I said I’d give you all a tip about putting “widgets” on your home screen, and whilst I hate to break a promise, I’ve come across something that I think is a little bit more important. I wanted to let everyone know about something called #JoinIn in time for Christmas Day.
#JoinIn is a project that was started by comedian Sarah Millican, for people who find Christmas time hard, or are going to be on their own and would prefer company. The idea is to start conversations on Twitter (or X as it’s now called) using the hashtag #JoinIn so that you can have someone to talk to and feel less alone.
There aren’t really any rules about what you should talk about, as long as everyone keeps it polite and kind, since the whole idea is that it’s a welcoming, friendly environment. This year Sarah Millican isn’t going to be part of it, which is a shame, but after 13 years, I think she’s entitled to a break!
If you want to take part in it, the first thing you’ll need is an account with Twitter/X. If you don’t have one already, you can install the X app on your smartphone, or go to www.twitter.com and click on “Create account”. You’ll need to give them your name, your phone number or email address (you can choose), and your date of birth.
There’ll be some optional marketing gubbins, which you can ignore, and then it’ll ask you to “Authenticate” your account (basically, it wants to check that you’re a real person). It’s fairly straightforward, just follow the instructions on the screen.
Next, it’ll send a code to the email address you used to sign up, which you then need to type into the box. And finally it’ll ask you for a password. Make sure it’s memorable and unique!
Once you get signed in, you can post something by going to the “What is happening?” box at the top, typing whatever you want to say, and then clicking or tapping on “Post”. If you want your post to be part of the #joinin conversation, you’ll need to include #joinin (with no spaces) somewhere in your post.
You’ll probably find that other people end up replying to your post, and you can have a good old chinwag about pretty much anything. Or you can search for “#joinin” in the search box to find other people who are doing it too, and click or tap on the little speech bubble icon underneath a post to reply to them.
I think it’s really lovely that this campaign exists – Christmas does tend to be focused on families and friends and assuming that everyone will have a wonderful time, when for many people it doesn’t always work out like that. So I’ve sent this out today in the hope that anyone who does want to take part is able to get their account all set up and ready to use in time.