I remember the moment I found out my Twitter account had been verified, which may as well have been called validation instead of verification. In those early days, it wasn’t enough just to hold an office or be a staff writer at a website—it was a more subjective test that seemed to come down to “being someone who mattered.” I had been the guy who eschewed honorifics, but suddenly I was chasing this symbol. To me, that little blue check mark was tantamount to American knighthood.
