DigitalFanGirl

I am writing this post fron my BlackBerry Curve for the first time. Let’s see if it really works.

I joined Twitter in November of 2006. I wanna say it was Thanksgiving day, but I cannot recall. I think Twitter actually launched in March or May of 2006, so when I got on there it was pretty new. No one I knew was on Twitter or had even heard of Twitter. I used Twitter, but I didn’t get obsessed with it until the summer of 2007. From November 2006 til that time I was following people who shared similar interests and making some new Twitter friends.

For the first year and a half I really enjoyed Twitter. People were fun, it was a very light-hearted landscape and I had a blast on it.

Now, for those who don’t know what Twitter is (I don’t see how you couldn’t these days. Even mainstream media has caught the Twitter bug). Twitter is a microbloggibg service that allows you to write a message in 140 characters. Twitter asks one thing and one thing only: WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

So, in the beginning Twitter was fun and people were having a good time and it was a cool place to be. Well, I can no longer say it’s 100% fun and it’s definitely more annoying at times and it’s mainly because of the attitudes of certain people.

Let me explain so you understand exactly what I’m talking about. Let me also preface this by saying sometimes us techie folks and these self-proclaimed gurus or marketing superstars have the ability to literally suck the fun out of everything. I mean every damn thing.

Twitter asks WHAT ARE YOU DOING? and that’s exactly what people were doing in the beginning and it was great. Then fast forward a year and a half later and everyone is asking how can you monetize Twitter, how does it help your business, who are the best people to follow, how can twitter increase your blog subscribers, etc, etc. In addition certain people were and are still saying “if you’re not adding value, I’m not going to follow you”. The Twitter landscape changed drastically. It’s no longer fun. People were and still are conplaining saying there’s too much noise and saying they don’t want to read what someone ate for breakfast and on and on. All this talk = sucking the fun out of Twitter.

I have a few points. Let’s not forget what Twitter asks. Say it with me: WHAT ARE YOU DOING? So for those saying they don’t want to read what someone ate for breakfast or dinner I say: When a company starts a business that provides a service that asks you write what you’re doing in 140 characters, what do you expect. There are rules to Twitter. You don’t have to be a phd to join Twitter and Twitter isn’t asking anyone to write 140 character thesis, so when people on Twitter start talking about if you’re not adding value I’m not going to follow you – I say get over yourself. All this talk is really quite sickening and annoying. Twitter was a fun place and now you have these Twitter snobs measuring the value of a tweet and making you feel like crap if you haven’t found a way to boost your business using Twitter. To those people I say: have you ever thought maybe, just maybe, some people like to use Twitter as their water cooler?
Go figure.

These Twitter snobs have really turned me off from Twitter, so I’ve found myself unfollowing several people and trying to find new folks to follow who have less of a Twitter snob attitude.

I still use Twitter, but not nearly as much as I did a year ago. I also follow some really great people. Some of them Tweet about politics, food, DC/MD/VA happenings, web resources, wordpress stuff, family stuff, and many just tweet about any and everything. I enjoy them all and think they all have valuable tweets and they make it fun for me to be a part of Twitter.

How has your experience been on Twitter?