Like many who are passionate about tweeting, I have come to eulogize this medium as well. But for some individuals Twitter has transformed into a playground for medocrity, posting incoherent location tweets, one-liners to ridicule celebs, rants and so on. Or perhaps I goofed up big time in my selection of followers.
I’ve observed frustration at times and questioned myself, what’s the most appropriate use of Twitter? If you look back in history, the founding fathers of Twitter envisioned it to be an SMS service “posting short burst of inconsequential information”. It now looks as if some are taking that word “inconsequential” far too seriously.
So what is the aim behind writing this passage? because I wanted to list out the individuals that I observe on Twitter and give them a name. And also to help YOU, the passionate, always-will-die-for-Twitter fanatic to build a sensible opinion before you post your next tweet.
The Ugly Dissenter
Always uses the Twitter to great effect. The Dissenter publishes rants, harsh opinions & ugly sarcasms. The personal bugbear of the Dissenter is the politician or a high profile celebrity. The Dissenter pushes the limits of his/her vociferation ofttimes behind the garb of anonymity, leading into multiple continuous tweets and usually containing cuss words – not starred ***, they don’t care about self-censorship, they just say what they have to. Upfront.
I Think: some critiquing is welcome but don’t overdo the act. There’s a thin line between humour or submitting your opinion and disgust. Also Twitter is a public medium, your tweets get archived & are searchable via Google. And your tweets can be reproduced by Twitter Inc., just in case you weren’t aware. Avoid displaying lengthy emotions which are better off on your blog or newspaper columns rather than in limited characters.
The Link Pimp
The Link Pimp never fails to believe that the only way to impress the “audience” is by posting (read spamming) and/or retweeting links from everywhere. In fact in most cases the Link Pimp is a fanboy of aggregator services such as Friendfeed which ensures everybody’s (read followers) timeline can be flooded effortlessly & simultaneously by dozens of uninteresting URLs, music & video favourites and so on. It works in the favour of the Link Pimp in keeping the status alive as an active user & increases his/her tweet count. The Pimp basically must be a character who has limited or no communication capabilities whatsoever of any sort. They are simply here for fun & propaganda.
I Believe: It’s difficult to persuade your followers to visit a URL. Try to converse with people like you’d normally do offline. That’s much easier.
The Conversationalist
You or your privacy is worth the price of sawdust for the Conversationalist. His/her friendly conversations matter a lot. So imagine the Conversationalist having a personal private Twitter talk with one or more of his/her follower(s) and s/he does the most unimaginable things ever – “
I Believe: in keeping conversations personal. If you think you must include friends address them separately. But ensure that the conversation doesn’t spill over beyond your own timeline.
The Misguided Celeb
You got featured on TV and in the press, you got publicity & now have more followers on Twitter than possibly the electoral voters of your locality. That qualifies you for becoming the Misguided Celebrity on Twitter. The rules are simple – you mustn’t follow a greater number of followers – say keep the number to 100 while you have over a 100,000 followers, that will give an impression of how picky you are about “quality tweets”. Secondly, you must have your conversation only with a chosen few (misguided celebrities again) from amongst your list of 100, create drama so you can generate whatever little responses you can afford. Thirdly, it doesn’t matter if you’re boring & ugly but never concede the snobbery & arrogance inside you – don’t bother responding to every Tom, Dick & Dirty Harry who wish to be friends with you. Don’t forget to gloat perpetually about that handshake & Twitpic with a Bollywood actor at the launch party or that holiday which you had in Spain along with the Twitpics or albums on Flickr. A pinch of publicity never killed anyone on Twitter. And oh, in the interim period if you feel bored, you can “vanish” from Twitter under the guise of “detoxification”. Also used effectively by many ” celebs” as a wonderful yardstick to measure one’s “popularity rating”.
I Concur: there’s no harm in responding to friendly conversations and reaching out to others, that is why Twitter is a great place to make new friends.
The Groupies
Consider them as a bunch of deluded fanatics on steroids, or hopeless addicts if you will. A typical day in the life of these Groupies starts with greeting E-V-E-R-Y possible follower they can force into one Tweet. Sometimes multiple tweets. Then someone joins the fest and Retweets the whole bunch of followers!! – one can only see followers because the greeting is buried somewhere under the heap of ‘@usernames’. You may not be interested in this kind of forced “friendliness”, it hardy mattered to the Groupies.
I Guess: There’s no substitute for having a real friend than a virtual one. And some conversations are better delivered & appreciated verbally in reality than texting online.
There are some who like to announce their location using Foursquare, or when they become “Mayors” of some alley in their neighborhood. I don’t know what I should call them – location lunatics maybe. There was a period when ‘Mafia Wars’ had taken over my Twitter timeline and there would “killings” (read spammings) day after day, tweet after tweet. And now there’s a new enemy called ‘Quora’. Then there are Internet Marketeers, they’ll have nothing interesting to tweet but will follow everybody who follows them. In turn they get a huge audience to push their marketing agenda, let’s say selling a hosting service or a soap brand.
There are plenty more roles, I could write a sequel to this article. But the purpose of this post isn’t to distinguish between “good tweeting” & “bad tweeting” or to teach etiquette in tweeting. This is just my observation and a personal suggestion – there’s always a “best practice” principle that we follow that makes us confident in the otucome. Personally I think Twitter is simply a facilitator in the social networking sector and its role in our life needs much more respect then what we currently have to offer. People hold different perspectives looking at Twitter. For some it has become a source of getting invaluable information such as reviews & product launches, for many Twitter has become their emotional support lifeline, where they met friends and got more out of life. In fact many would have found their life-partners too. So how and what we experience and learn from Twitter depends on our wisdom & maturity. The same goes for ethical tweeting. As they say “to each one his own” but how “sociable” do we want to become and in what way rests upon us. It’s not a rule, it’s an exception.
My Take On Twitter
Final last words. I admire Twitter folks and my followers in particular. But my focus has never been to gain more followers (which explains my anorexic follower count). And I don’t feel obligated to “follow back” but I care to respond to those for whom I have a valid & sane response, not just inane smileys or “yes” & “no”. On the contrary I follow dozens who haven’t reciprocated (or have unfollowed me quitely), but their tweets are informative & enriching hence they continue to be “stalked”. I follow some very smart people from whom I have learned a lot. The definition of social networking for me is to be informed about the latest developments in the areas that I’m most intrigued about – Apple, Design, Current Affairs, Sports, et al, on the way meeting some wonderful folks. I’m hoping to maintain this tradition & principle for myself in the future.
True. Every word..totally agree