Black Twitter is a lot of things, from activism to shenanigans, Denzel Washington memes to #IfIDieInPoliceCustody. But one aspect a lot of people overlook is the fact that your soul mate could be one tweet or direct message away.
Looking for love online isn’t anything new. There’s Tinder, OkCupid, Plenty of Fish and Match, but Twitter has its possibilities, too—just ask Dave and Karla Johnson.
In 2012, Karla Stover relocated from the Michigan area to Maryland. She’d been in the area for two weeks when she hopped on Twitter one night. While she was tweeting and watching television, a commercial for the Baltimore National Aquarium came on, and she tweeted that she’d like to go one day.
And because of the magic of Twitter’s advanced-search features, nothing is ever lost:
https://twitter.com/SeauxCocoa/status/238721137289355265
Karla and Dave had been following each other since 2009, and they were friendly with each other on the social network but had never met or even discussed meeting until the Baltimore Aquarium tweet.
https://twitter.com/davevanb/status/238721467297185792https://twitter.com/SeauxCocoa/status/238721600038510593https://twitter.com/davevanb/status/238721822705713153https://twitter.com/SeauxCocoa/status/238722037395382272https://twitter.com/davevanb/status/238722683070726144
And just like that, a few days later Karla ended up at the aquarium.
https://twitter.com/SeauxCocoa/status/242023442084425728
Fast-forward to a few months ago, when Karla and Dave celebrated their wedding in front of family and friends, who included a few people from Twitter.
In an interview with The Root, Karla gave some insight into dating and how people shouldn’t rule out Twitter as an option.
The Root: Were you actually in the dating market at the time?
Karla Johnson: I don’t know if I was in the “market,” but I was single and had been dating.
TR: When you tell people you met on Twitter, how do they react?
KJ: They are usually pleasantly surprised. I haven't encountered any negativity about it.
TR: How soon after dating were you engaged?
KJ: Yikes! We met in person in September 2012. We moved in together the following April and were engaged the following March after that.
TR: Since Twitter is a public forum, was it hard being in a relationship? Did you censor yourself—or suspect that you needed to because your boyfriend was on Twitter?
KJ: Not for me, although in the past it had been. I had dated someone I met on Twitter before when I lived in Michigan, but he was/is “Twitter popular,” and I had a hard time dealing with all the flirting. I think, though, that once you find someone that genuinely wants to be with you and knows what it takes to keep a relationship and actually wants to do what it takes to keep a relationship, they conduct themselves accordingly. But of course I am no guru and can only go off my prior experience.
TR: Do you encourage other people to look for love on Twitter?
KJ: All the time. I think, though, sometimes people are caught up in what they think or want the package to look like and overlook a diamond in the rough. My advice (not that anyone asked) is to relax your preferences, but not your standards.
On Saturday, as the happy couple start their honeymoon, remember that love could be a tweet away.