Twitter is the high maintenance diva/divo of the social networking world. Twitter, as opposed to LinkedIn, MySpace (does anyone still use that?) and Facebook, needs constant attention and there is more pressure to be prolific, immediate and extremely clever on a multi-daily basis. I mean, the thought of it alone makes me want to take a Xanax. Last Friday my “follower” count was up to 116 (thanks to my friend John). I logged in this morning and saw that my follower count now was down to 97. Did these people actively un-follow me? Am I not interesting enough?
Thoughts of rejection plague my mind as I desperately tried to wrap my head around the reason people would delete me electronically from their lives. Granted, these people are total strangers and I wouldn’t be able to pick most of them out of a one man line-up. However, I can not help but take it a bit personally. Does one have to dedicate their entire life to technology in order to garner acclaim and keep their followers? My friend John told his followers to follow me and that is how I grew to have as many as I did on Friday. While I completely appreciate him trying to get my name out there, I couldn’t help but feel the cult-like aspect to twitter. In a matter of about 5 seconds I went from having a meager 5 followers to having 116. These strangers decided to follow me because someone told them to. What if some tweeted them: “Drink the Kool Aid or ‘Put the lotion in the basket’? Would they have followed blindly then?
This universe of technological immediacy and urgency is still a bit new to me. Unless you have the clout of celebrity surrounding you, the average (and in no way am I being self deprecating) person needs to try uber hard to not only get their point across but have it viewed by many people. According to the Boston Herald Kim Kardashian charges up to $25,000 to endorse you via tweet. If you have the money to invest, celebrities will blindly endorse you or your product and their millions of fans will follow you blindly. It seems a bit silly doesn’t it? Perhaps I am writing all of this because I maybe a bit jilted from the fact that I was un-followed. Still the questions remain: Does this mean I have to step up my game and be a)funnier b)wittier c)more profound. Twitter is supposed to help me isn’t it? It isn’t supposed to make me question myself and my self worth. Twitter, you are an evil beast but I have succumb to your power and will continue to try and placate you until you stop making me feel bad. If things don't change...I think we should try and see other people ;)
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