You don’t know what you’re missing if your not a tweeter – Kevin Buckle

Twitter is a great source of news and entertaiment – and Kevin Buckle’s favourite accounts to prove it
Social media use is up during the lockdownSocial media use is up during the lockdown
Social media use is up during the lockdown

As we all spend more time at home it is noticeable that there are many more people on social media sites and at all times of the day. Before there were obvious busier times at the weekend and in the evening whereas now while those times are still busy there is far more activity during the day.

Also different tweets than might be expected have proved to be popular and none more so than a recent picture I posted on @avalanche_edin of American band The Strokes sitting on Calton Hill 20 years ago. I’ve used it before with little interest but this time while not exactly going viral it is currently approaching a hundred retweets and a thousand likes.

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I still have friends who refuse to even look at Twitter, quoting some of the more obvious nonsense often reported in the papers, but to be honest if used properly it is a fantastic source of news and information of all kinds.

On top of that of course it can be very entertaining and indeed amusing. I’ve mentioned accounts on Twitter before but now seemed like a good time to list a few whose accounts I look at a lot. For Scottish music lovers the account to follow is Scottish Post-Punk @ScotsPostPunk There is an endless stream of interesting facts and pictures and even a radio show you can listen to. Of course the Scottish Pop Music Centre @HistoryofSMC has an account I run which I hope complements @ScotsPostPunk

Another music-related account by Graeme McNay @GraemeRMcNay regularly posts the original artwork that has been used for albums, singles, posters and adverts and has the extra bonus of highlighting some lesser known photographers and artists too.

To see what local councillors are doing in the city centre the two active accounts on Twitter are Jo Mowat @jomowat and Claire Miller @CllrCMiller and there is no better account for local news than The Broughton Spurtle @theSpurtle For a more humorous look on life in the New Town the New Town Flaneur @NewTownFlaneur has returned from a self-imposed exile with, among other things, his views on Fife, Leith and red trews.

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There are many excellent photographers who specialise in photos of Edinburgh and its wildlife and particularly popular are those of the otters that now frequent the city including some video footage of otters playing in the canal at Fountainbridge. Mentioned before in this column but well worth mentioning again is Scott Liddell otherwise known as Dark Edinburgh @darkedinburgh His photos are matched by quotes from songs, books, films and philosophers and they are so popular we now sell some of them as prints in the shop.

Another personal favourite is the henni.photo @HenniPhoto account with photographs of Edinburgh taken by Lynn and Paul Henni. To quote The Spurtle: “I love their takes on lyrical urban noir . . . and their eye for the beautiful illusions this beguiling city has to offer.” Another whose images I hope to stock in the future.

For news of what is being built in Edinburgh and what is being planned the account to follow is Skyscraper City Edinburgh @EdinburghSSC Nothing is missed.

There are of course lots of interesting folk on Twitter and there really is something for everybody and that’s before you even start looking at Facebook, Instagram ……

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