Clearly different people use twitter in different ways. As it should be. I can only speak from my own experience of it. As with all social media there is an element of micro-celebrity built into it. E.g. “You only have 187 friends/followers, I have 1,087!” etc. And it also makes sense that those who work the medium hardest have the most “success”. We are human. We will always want to rub others’ noses in it. That’s how God made us.
My experience of Twitter went something like this.
1. I don’t want to be on twitter. it’s a load of old narcissistic wank.
2. It may well be a load of old narcissistic wank. but how can you know for sure if you don’t try it?
3. Im on it. It’s not exciting, but hey Stephen Fry is on it! And the creator of Father Ted! And Steve Buscemi! Actually interesting people!
So i’ve used twitter as a source of entertainment. And, as a pathetic celebrity whore, it’s really exciting to follow people i admire and get into their heads a bit. this could not have happened without twitter. So i’m netting out on the side of twitter is a good thing. because celebrities are better than us. that’s why. and nobody cares about how you like your morning bagel. unless you’re larry david.
new media tends to follow the path of least resistance. The internet 1994: a possibly world-changing tool that will facilitate cross-cultural dialogue on an unprecedented scale, OR, will it become a porn and gambling facilitator. and we all know how that went. twitter may have hit gold with celebs connecting to fans. a constant electronic flow of love from adoring fans – yeah that’ll work.
imagine if sean penn, who probably should never twitter, twittered for a month on behalf of a charity. and you had to pay ten bucks to follow him. i would do that!
So last week i had an idea for twitter. and today i found out it has been done. it’s this:
http://wefollow.com/
It connects “twitterees” (us tedious plebs) with “twitterers” (actually interesting celeb folk).
A brilliant idea.
6 responses so far ↓
MJ // March 23, 2009 at 3:21 pm |
If Mr. Penn wanted to raise some serious cash for charity, he would hold an eBay auction and give the winner the right to punch him. I know I would start the bidding at $50K if it meant I could take one good shot at him.
theescapepod // March 23, 2009 at 3:43 pm |
i doubt very much sean penn would risk his pretty face for anything less than a million bucks. mickey rourke on the other hand…
timw // March 26, 2009 at 11:34 am |
twitter as a charity driving tool has already commenced. Of note the first annual Twestival, is said to have had some 10,000 attendees in 200 cities across the globe and had donated more than a quarter of million dollars to clean-water efforts in Africa and India. sean could clearly drive more
http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2009/03/01/and-now-twitter-philanthropy/
theescapepod // March 26, 2009 at 11:43 am |
tim, thanks for that. yes twitter is a natural for charities. and you’re right, mr. penn could whip up a firestorm on twitter.
Jordan Willms // March 28, 2009 at 1:59 pm |
It sounds like many people had this idea all at once!
Check out http://www.TweetTop.com — which is a editor managed twitter directory which I run.
Cheers.
J, http://www.sumolabs.com
theescapepod // April 1, 2009 at 2:21 pm |
Yep Jordan. it was clearly an idea whose time had come.