Dispatches from my Internet of Things

This post is more than 3 years old.

A few years ago I noticed that a couple of different tools and services I was using at the time were offering the option to tweet when I engaged with them somehow. I was interested to try it out but I didn't want to clutter up my human-authored Twitter feed with a bunch of software-authored stuff that I couldn't necessarily control the timing or content of.

So, I created the @JCHThings Twitter account, and it's been a steady stream of activity from the Internet-connected devices and tools in my life ever since.

Sometimes it shares some bad news:

Sometimes it can be pretty boring:

Or quirky:

In a few cases I decided it was sharing too much information (arguably an apt description of the whole account, I know) and turned those updates off:

Occasionally I'll write software to have it post updates specific to a certain season:

(The Presidential election prediction isn't really tied to a thing in my life, but the number can affect my real-world mood for a given day, so it qualifies for the feed.)

The account has 10 followers, and I think only 4 of them are human. Other random accounts sometimes Like or Retweet the tweets, otherwise mostly it's just a bot screaming into the void. But I've enjoyed tinkering with it and seeing this weird connection between my physical world and my online world play out.

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