It might just be me. I grew a bit older, so maybe my tolerance level is fading. I feel I’m slowly turning into a Jeremy Clarkson of social media: as he phrases it so nicely himself: I’m turning into a grumpy old man, a Social Media Troll.
TrueTwit and other validation systems are driving me bananas for instance. It’s perfectly ok for you to check me out before following me, but do not expect me to click on a nitwit automated system. And… what is up with these protected tweets. I thought Social Networks where about being social. So you want to be open and caring, and sharing, but on invitation only? That’s fine. Use mail. Set up a club. Go away. Using protected tweets puts you in the ridiculous position of being the only dressed one on a nudist beach. If you want to read what others say, show your thoughts to the world? What makes me grinding my teeth is when a “protected tweeter” follows me, and I try to return the courtesy… grrr.
And sharing content from others, without giving credit where due? Duh? Where are your manners? To me, it’s a creepy form of intellectual stealing. Unfortunately, it happens all the time.
Before my raising blood pressure dives into the dangerous red, one last one: Twitter snobbism. It drives me nuts, gives me the raging bimbam. I talked with a Twittering politician earlier this week, asking him why he did not follow 98 % of his followers. “I do not have to”, he said: “I use Twitter as a broadcast medium”. I certainly hope that his followers will return his favor, and will massively un-follow. It’s a bit difficult “broadcasting” when no one is listening.
It’s even #more #difficult #“broadcasting” #when #you #put #a #hashtag #before #every #single #word Or You Just Decide To Start Every Screaming Word With A Capital Letter OR EVEN WORSE YOU ARE SCREAMING ALL THE TIME. I’ve had it a bit.
From now on, there will be no mercy. Quarter asked, nor given. No manners and I’ll un-follow you into sweet oblivion, erasing all your pitiful existence out of my digital life. I know you will not care. But I will feel better.
There is something I have never understood. Maybe you can explain. If I look at your Twitter profile I see you have 24408 followers (impressive) and that you follow 23515 twitter accounts. 23515? How can a human being handle so many incoming tweets? I’m pretty sure there’s only a fraction of incoming tweets you actually read (reading tweets would be a more than full-time job otherwise). So what’s the added value for people you follow if you only read a tiny percentage (or even none) of their tweets? And what’s the added value for you if you get so many incoming tweets that it becomes difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff (list could be handy off course).
Just wondering 🙂
Ha ! De Guy !
You’re right. The amount of people I follow back counts for a staggering 3 tweets per second in average. No way I can read all of that at once. Or ever.
But that is not the point. I cannot invite all my friends over at the same time at my house, or have interesting conversations with them all at the same time.
You hint at the answer yourself: lists. there is a number of tweeps I read everything from. Close friends, clients, colleagues, … And then, I have my lists per topic or keyword. Every time one of my tweeps talks about a –for me- interesting topic, I have an opportunity to see. I’m not interested in their football weekends, but if they start working on a 4×4 vehicle, I want to know….
Also, an amazing amount of the following tweeps contacts me directly, or engages me in conversation. I’m lucky to be in a position where enjoying that conversation is part of what I do for a living.
Mind you, I have nothing against people who maintain cautiously a small Twittercrowd. All repect to them! The size of a network of someone does not matter to me. If someone follows 60 people, and 70 people follow him: good ! And…. Balanced. There is mutual respect.
A politician who claims to listen and to “represent the view of the people”, but has 10k of followers, following back 400…. Nope. Rude. It’s like giving someone a business card and saying that person is not interesting enough to collect one back. A politician who does not even follow back do not even have the opportunity to listen to his people. I’ll cast my vote elsewhere 😉