In a strange way, Twitter has helped Alameddine negotiate a boundary that has always preoccupied him. While posting, he feels himself to be in a kind of protected netherworld, neither public nor private—even though, of course, Twitter is plainly the former. “It’s as though I’m hiding behind the screen,” he said. “I feel as though I have control over my interactions with people. It’s really funny, actually, because, as a writer, it drives me absolutely crazy that people can read my work and critique it. But with Twitter, if someone doesn’t like what I like, I block them!”