Twitter Fiend

Ah, social media. It’s a topic that I post about far too often for it to not be obvious that I love it (after all, I spend a lot of time researching it for work, so I have to have some sort of affection).

While Facebook is a place where, despite its failings, you can keep in touch with old friends and people who have moved away, Twitter is just a bit of an ego boost, isn’t it?

Oh yes I know the official line is some guff like “networking, updating, socialising, ahblah..” but it really is a playground-esque microcosm.

It makes me lose sleep at night*. Your phone sings and you go and see what’s occurring. Ooh I have a new Twitter follower! People like me! How exciting! I think. But how come I still have the same amount of people following me as before? Who have I lost? And WHY??? WHY DON’T THEY LIKE ME???!

It makes you feel like one of the last kids to get picked in primary school rounders, doesn’t it? I mean I was never very sporty and I was always the little one, so when it got down to the last three (me, Fatty Fatterson who smelled really bad and the kid who at 6 was smoking twenty a day) I always got a little worried. Like me more than those two, plllllease!!! Inevitably I was picked because I wouldn’t have a heart attack at first base like the other two, but it was touch and go for a minute there.

It seems that Twitter followers can be fickle, and my updates on a Saturday night about the x-factor may annoy those literary geniuses (genie-i? someone help me out with this plural) who want me only to spout about the joys of Wordsworth in 140 characters or less. Sure, you might not want to know that I consider eating a chocolate orange to be one of my portions of fruit and veg for the day, but as Yoda would say, “Care do I not”.

So why do we use Twitter? Because it’s fun. I love getting a mention from Brooke and McKenzie to tell me that they have posted another giggle ridden story about their latest dating attempt, or to hear that the boys at inomthebandwagon are slating another celebrity. My sister recently signed up and in trying to explain to her how to use it and why I do, I realised I do not have a clue. My only theory is that when Adam Levine tweets, I can say to my sister “Maroon Five are on tour again. Adam Levine told me”. She sees through this one, but sometimes lets me sneak these lies into sentences all the same. I mean come on, he did!! Kind of….

*It doesn’t really. There are a lot of thing that make me lose sleep at night like the man upstairs using his washing machine post-midnight or foxes, but social media is not one of them, lets call it poetic licence 🙂