Why did you first join Twitter? For TV writer and director Prentice Penny, he joined Twitter as a Los Angeles Lakers fan, looking for team updates like trades, injuries and potential draft picks. It was years before he would become showrunner of the Peabody Award-winning HBO series "Insecure," starring Issa Rae. It was the glory days of Black Twitter — a home on the social media platform for fun and connection with a bigger community who could relate to Penny's Black experience as a fan and an artist.
When I talked to Penny ahead of his latest project, the Hulu documentary series "Black Twitter," I asked him what was special to him about Twitter. Why was it easier to connect with strangers on Twitter than real-life friends on Facebook? “On Twitter you get to see if somebody is funny, if somebody is snarky, if somebody is really smart.” Penny said. “You get to see people's kind of the way they think.” Penny continued, “And I think that becomes much more of an interesting person to want to meet than just seeing a picture and not knowing what's happening here.”
