A Message From The Ibis

My platform of choice is Twitter and I tend to keep my engagement with the internet to a maximum of 280 characters at a time, but new experiences are good now and then. Now, I know what you’re thinking. How does an ibis possibly type? …Don’t worry about it. When I took over control the IDEAS Twitter account I was intrigued. Oh, I’ve certainly lived amongst humans for long enough, but you all never cease to fascinate me. My work on Twitter quickly became a study of your species…not in a weird way…just out of interest, you understand. You observe us too, I’m looking at you birdwatchers. (Who am I kidding, can I blame you? We’re fantastic. Love you birdwatchers.) In this, the final month of 2019, I’ve chosen to share some of my findings.

One of the most interesting things to look at is the trending tags section. It’s one of the best ways to tell what the collective population of Twitter is discussing at any given time. Whether it’s Game of Thrones or the latest political update, this website allows for immediate response to anything. It offers an insight into your priorities, or those of cultural bubble in which I live at least (They know where I am! That’s how they give me the trending tags! How do they know that!), and the people of The United States seem to be very excited about Baby Yoda.

Twitter becomes one giant, world-wide conversation, it’s so easy to join in. This has its dark sides of course. Arguments are started. A new upsetting and controversial topic seems to pop up every day. It would appear that being a human in 2019 is a difficult task. For the record, being an nonhuman animal in 2019 is also tricky and I would like to respectfully lodge a complaint. All this environmental stuff? No fault of ours. Regardless, some days scrolling through my Twitter gets truly disheartening.

But, inevitably, when I’ve begun to give up on you altogether I’ll come across an image of space or a clever meme, and my hope is restored. Because the real thing I’ve noticed about humanity, you all just don’t give up. You create these small beacons of hope in the form of videos of goats or cute robots or extremely aesthetically pleasing recipes. You’re creators, performers, thinkers, and you have opposable thumbs which I’m sure makes everything much easier.

To conclude my study, you all have your flaws, but everyone does. I mean even birds have flaws, some of us are just too elegant, too efficient, too beautiful. It’s an issue. Right, so you have your flaws, but you don’t seem to ever give up, which I find admirable. You’re resilient, you create the strangest, loveliest things, and you have high quality sarcasm. I admire you, humans, you with your fingers and art museums and robots. As an insightful poet once said, “Hope is the thing with feathers…”. So keep up hope, humanity, and save the birds…