A few days ago, fellow ‘Buzzer Caroline Gilmour asked “Are you over celebs on Twitter?”. Her article made some good points, not least of which was the reminder to use the block or unfollow functions at will.
Recently, because of Twitter’s new found popularity with both celebrities and the general public, I’ve been reading a lot of articles of the “Twitter has died a little inside” ilk. There’s been a constant stream of tweets and blogs complaining that now that the doors have opened and the masses have come in it’s just not fun anymore.
Now I could rant, Grauniad-style, about the inherent snobbery in this. However, I don’t mind snobs on the whole; sometimes I am one, so it would be a bit hypocritical. What I can’t help but complain about is the pointlessness of it.
The whole beauty of Twitter is the ability to follow and occasionally connect with people we might never otherwise never have heard of. It is not – or at least shouldn’t be – a closed circle of self-congratulatory love-ins. I’m not suggesting people shouldn’t have accounts that follow their friends; I have a professional account representing a charity and a personal account that I keep to a smaller circle. I just don’t think it diminishes Twitter in any way when there are more people there. Far from it, in fact.
If you’re finding that the people you follow are tending to talk to celebrities or people you’re not interested in, then switch off @replies to people you don’t follow (it’s in the settings). Or - *gasp* - unfollow them. If you think you’ll upset them, you can explain why beforehand (“I love you, I do, I’d just rather stick to watching you do the vampire / zombie thing on Facebook for four hours a day than read your @replies to Wossy ever again”).
However, before you do that, actually trouble to first take a look at who they’re talking to. I’ve discovered a wealth of interesting people just by clicking through conversations. On a personal level I was filled with incomparable joy by being able to directly address the man with my dream job: the head of social media at Disney. On a professional level it was enormous fun to run a competition inviting people to make a pun on Chihuahuas in a song title; this would never have been possible with just the same handful of people patting each other on the back endlessly, but became fun because it was a community of over 3,000 people joining in. (The winner was “The Chihuahua of Love” by Jennifer Rush, by the way).
There seems to be a pervading sentiment that Twitter has been somehow soiled by the great Internet unwashed invading and not understanding simple things like @replies, for crying out loud. To this I say that while you’re busy turning up your nose and mourning the death of Twitter, you might be missing out on talking to someone who is genuinely interesting. If they turn out not to be, use the greatest weapon in the Twitter arsenal. Ignore them completely.
This is not a new complaint, of course. People have always been irritated by the likes of Robert Scoble, who actually follows back everyone who follows him and treats sites like Twitter as a democracy where freedom of information – and, it seems, irritation – is at the heart.
But if you are one of those people bemoaning the ever-expanding Twitterverse, worry not. Let’s face it, as soon as the Next Big Thing comes along you can spend six months feeling special and creating a clique over there before us proles invade again and you can have another whinge.
Image via Current's "The Trouble with Twitter" animation.