Monday 15 November 2010

More twitter

Blimey.

Twitter is where ordinary and famous people meet. I don't really care about famous people much anymore - I like to read biographies of people I admire,* but it's the ordinary people that do the extraordinary stuff, & usually without recognition for it. So when I see famous folk on Twitter, even ones I like, I usually go 'meh...'

Yesterday though I posted (joking) "When I reach 70 followers I will buy everyone a Twix". My old friend Del retweeted it & a few people followed me.

Then it got retweeted by a well-known comedienne & suddenly my Inbox was steadily filling up with emails "You are now being followed by..." 71, 72, 73... 80, 90, over 100. They kept appearing. At first it was funny but then it was slightly scary. Where were all these people coming from? Were they expecting funny? I felt like I was onstage, naked, all of a sudden. It was like watching the power of the famous in action, though. A bit eerie.

Here are my further refined thoughts on Twitter after 8 months - blogs suit me more, they are slower and more friendly & intimate, more like going round someone's house for a cup of tea and a leisurely chat, whilst Twitter is like being in a busy noisy pub and yelling at them to compete for their attention across the table.


* currently reading Rat Girl by Kristin Hersh - highly recommended. Ooh, just noticed, cover is by Gilbert Hernandez too.

6 comments:

  1. Well put. I concur (it's good to say that with a serious face on).Also, more chance of having decent wine/beer round the friend's house.
    I don't get the 'follow' thing on the Twitter at all. A continuous loop of people in media or of comics. "You again?" I say, and "Where are the real people?".
    Are you going to be able to afford all that chocolate?

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  2. Were they expecting funny?

    no. Twixes.

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  3. Arabella, no. I will be the first person to be bankrupted by Twitter. (After the Robin Hood Airport man)

    Rosie, can they not count? I only needed 70. I'm not made of money.

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  4. Maybe if you do the onstage naked thing they’ll forget about the Twixes.

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  5. I like the twitter as pub analogy, which I use very often in work trying to explain how it all works for senior people.

    I've not extended it to the blog as "coming around your house" analogy, but I like that too.

    I found recently on twitter that I'm replying more and more and actually tweeting my own thoughts less and less.

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  6. Tim, No. No onstage naked thing. Never. Gok Wan is a sadist.

    (BTW I wonder what nightmares strippers have?)

    Adrian I can see the appeal but it's so full on & people seem to get totally drawn in. It's the crack of social networking.

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