I never meant for this blog to be about Twitter, and here I am talking about it in my very first post. But then @Glinner sent out a link to this article, and made me write. It’s not the worst article in the world, and this post could have been inspired by any number of things that I’ve read over the past few months.
I should have known better than to even bother reading this particular one, as it had all the warning signs that it would trigger a minor episode of ranting. For a start, the author of the piece lists ‘Mindfulness Teacher’ in his bio. Erm… right.
Let me put it this way. What you think Twitter should be and what I think Twitter should be are not necessarily the same thing. And they do not have to be the same thing.
I cannot understand why so many people seem to think there should be ‘rules’ of Twitter. The number of posts that are titled ‘Why I won’t follow you back on Twitter’ or ‘How not to annoy people on Twitter’. Who cares? Everyone has their own personal preference of what they want to see, and the beauty is being able to pick and choose. So you don’t want to follow me back? Fine. You have 47 million other people out there to choose from. I’m annoying you with my meaningless babble? That’s what the unfollow button is for. (I must confess to being eternally amazed that I have any followers left with some of the drivel that leaves my keyboard at times.)
Of course we all have our own personal preferences as to who we will and won’t follow. I personally won’t follow anybody who tweets in textspeak for a start, but I don’t expect you all to do the same. One man’s interesting is another man’s terminally dull.
Twitter is many things to many people. It cannot be defined solely as a marketing/networking/socialising/outreach tool. From my perspective, it’s like a big room full of people at a party – some are having serious, sober conversations about things like politics; others are doing lots of talking and not much listening; and some are having drunken, random, silly conversations – and I’m wandering round eavesdropping and joining in when I feel like it. We don’t all see exactly the same people, so you will see things different from where you’re standing, or maybe you’re even in a different room altogether. Don’t try to make it ‘one size fits all’, just enjoy the ride.
So please don’t tell me how I should be using Twitter, or what my Twitter ‘experience’ should be. I follow the people I find interesting whether they’re being informative, creative, amusing or just plain chatty. I say what I want to say, and whilst it’s nice to know there are some people out there who are interested, nobody’s making you read it.