If you read below this post you will see that in the not so distant past I’ve had a rant. Yep I had a dummy spit, yes I threw a little literary tantrum. I posted a little commentary that laid bare my thoughts on social networking and technology in general and how it was leading to people becoming more disengaged from each other than ever before. I let go against Twitter, MP3s, MFDs, Cell / Mobile Phones and anything that was, in general, taking us further away from face to face interaction.
I am many things and I hope I can sit here ‘hand on heart’ and say that I meant every single word I wrote. Well Dear Reader I did. But now I have another confession to make.
I am on Twitter, yep that’s right I have an account. Before you cast a stone, I only did it see what would happen, honest. Yes, I know that makes me sound like a six year old boy who has been caught with the family cat that has turned blue becuase it was suspended into the toilet bowl. Though it is the truth (I am referring here to the Twitter thing and the blue cat …sorry Mum and sorry Twinkles), I just wanted to see what all fuss was about.
So in the interest of conducting a social experiment I gave myself an account. I’m not sure how to reference these things but if you search under http://twitter.com/willthewriter you should find it. It was amazingly simple to set up,, took no more than ten minutes. Now I’ve heard stories of celebrities and sports stars have many thousands of followers, all well and good for them I thought they are, after all, famous. I wasn’t aiming anywhere near that high …yet. I settled back and waited for the Twitter community to catch on that I was ‘live’.
Nothing…
Got up made a coffee, took a quick peek while the kettle was boiling … still nothing.
Not to worry, plenty of things to do, very busy. Everyone else is busy too, it’ll just take a bit more time.
Mowed the lawn, put out the rubbish, fed the dog, took another peek …not a hit. It’s okay, it’s a weekend, everyone must be out and about.
Anyway you get the picture. I was getting a little obsessive. I had to stop myself from sneaking to the laptop in the middle of the night, just to see if someone on the other side of the world (or even someone on this side of the world who was up really late) had left a message.
I think I’m past the worst of it now and I can now go hours without checking.
But this is just a social experiment and I am not valuing myself by the number, or lack of, hits that I am getting (which is just as well because my self esteem meter would be in the red).
I mentioned my little dilemma to someone and they had the temerity to ask “well what have you posted?” Being the honest chap that I am, I replied “well nothing really, just a general hello, I’m here.”
Therein lies my problem it seems. I need to have something at least mildly interesting to say before I have a hope of anyone following me.
Well, that’s just fine and dandy isn’t it? No one will follow me just because I’m me… how unfair.
I’m not totally abandoning my experiment, no, I shall persevere. And if I think of anything interesting to say (which I still think sounds a little unfair) I promise to Tweet you all.
But if you aren’t onboard, don’t blame me cause you missed out!
