Sassi's Out of Twitter Jail: My Thank You Note to the Twittersphere

My Outlet for Sharing What's in My Mind

After COVID crept upon us, I used Twitter as my outlet for sharing what was going through my mind. Maybe it was my coping mechanism for all the change. Maybe it was my way of getting the random thoughts out of my head so I could move on and concentrate. Instead of journaling, I tweeted all the random madness in my brain and shared my world with THE WORLD. Ok, maybe 10,600 people in the world.

The Internet: A Force for Good

While we all know the internet can often be a cesspool of trolls and unsavory insanity, it can also be a force for good. As a digital inclusion advocate, my life revolves around empowering the world to make meaningful use of the internet. In my prior job, I was an impact investor at Microsoft and empowered internet service providers and energy access companies to build internet connectivity and electrified the world’s most underserved communities. I brought digital skills to the newly connected through my Chair position at IEEE in the Digital Skills & Readiness Working Group that brought the world’s first IEEE Standard for what it means to be digitally literate. Check that out here. So, yes, the internet and having the ability to use tech to share my voice, inspire others, and empower the world are core to my identity. Hell, my PhD research is on the digital inclusion of underserved and underrepresented communities, so yes, having a voice on the internet is something I cannot help but do.

Turning My Worst Nightmare into My Superpower

Many of you know that my children and I are victims of parental kidnapping and I never was able to get them back. Don’t get me wrong, they are healthy, normal, and adjusted little humans; however, after more than ten years, I never got to bring them back to my home country of the United States. When I discovered that my daughter’s school lacked a computer lab and all children in her class were sharing one computer across 30 to 40 kids, I set out on a mission to help her school. These two events served as catalysts in my life for realizing my life’s work: empowering underserved communities to transform their lives through access, skills, and utilization of technology to create meaningful outcomes.

For me, digital inclusion meant being a mother. I am a digital mother to Zahra, Zahran, and Youmna. While I visit as often as I can, COVID has had a significant impact on my ability to be with my children due to government lockdowns and challenges with traveling to their home country. I am able to visit, see my children, and spend time with them, so not all was lost; however, I am playing the long game that will one day transition me from a digital mother to a real-life mother like what one might dream about when picturing the role of a mother.

The loss of my ability to mother in real life created significant loss in all aspects of my life and I feel lucky to have made it out of the trenches. My circumstances led me to try to fill my gaping hole with other things…some productive and others not so much. When I started my mission to bring computers into her classroom, I ended up landing 400 laptops that went to twenty North African schools. A bit of that space in my soul was filled. I realized that community service, working toward one of the wickedest challenges of our time – digital inclusion – was what I was meant to do. It made the world’s underserved and underrepresented communities my family in a way, as digital inclusion is what enabled me to be a mother to my three children.

As I started to dive deeper and deeper into digital skill-building, I ended up creating my own nonprofit that’s based out of Tunis, Tunisia. It’s 100% youth led and youth run with an aim of transitioning youth from consumers of technology into creators, makers, and doers empowered by technology. We teach youth to code and have taught tens of thousands of young people to code in twelve countries. It inspired the job that I have today at IBM where I serve as the Global Head of Student & Entrepreneur Experience worldwide within the IBM Z division of IBM.

Online Friendships: As Meaningful as those in Real Life

So, you see, my connection to the internet and social media also serve as outlets for me, and maybe this paints a picture around why being silenced was incredibly difficult for me. For me, my online friendships are just as meaningful as those in real life. Big shoutout to Kari and Holly for showing me how online friends can truly become best friends in all aspects of the world in which we live.

My Stupid Twitter Joke & its Impact on my Identity

I made a bonehead move recently and told a dumb joke that sounded funny at the time but ended up sending me into an identity crisis after my Twitter account was suspended. Thankfully, I am back (WOOT! WOOT!). You can read more about what happened in my Open Letter to the Twittersphere, as well as JD’s Open Letter to Jack (yup, that Jack), and I promise, it was not any DUCKING fun at all. DUCK is right!

While losing access to a Twitter handle might not seem like a big deal for some, it was as if I lost a little part of my family, my identity, and my outlet in life. Yes, there are bigger problems to solve that Melissa and her Twitter handle, I agree; however, it made me vulnerable and feel like that kid who is not invited to dodgeball on the playground because no one wanted the kid on the team. Ok, again, not the end of the world, but I was DUCKING vulnerable.

Shoutout Time (Hi Jack!)

Yesterday, I woke up to find my Twitter handle had been restored and the world realized that I had made a dumb joke, autocorrect failed me miserably, and most importantly…I AM NOT A VIOLENT OFFENDER + I certainly do not want any unfavorable circumstances to come to my colleague and buddy Steven Dickens. Hell, I need that guy. He is also a friend and sounding board. Hi Steven! Yes, keep the LinuxONE license plate!

My first thank you goes to Steven for understanding my dumb joke and advocating for me to get back into the dodgeball game. I also thank JD for writing his Open Letter to Jack Dorsey blog. I thank Nathaniel for reaching out to his connections. I thank Gail for being a friend who advocated on my behalf and said to me one day “I just want to be your friend after knowing one another for a very short time”. I feel like I have known this star for years and years. I thank Adam and Avroham and Taylor and Lisa and Jamie and Neville and Hessie and Roxana and Aaron and Dona and Annie and Nicole. Even my daughter Zahra tweeted to Jack. Hi Jack! Sorry for all my peeps tweeting at you ??.

I know I am missing so many of you who tweeted, wrote, emailed, called, and checked up on me.

I am thankful to have friends and kids who care and thankful to have my voice restored.

See you back on the bird app!

Melissa Sassi

@mentorafrika