Twitter: The Social Network for the Chronically Distracted

…Is that a Status Update or are you just glad to Tweet me?

Tweet Elites (#TE)

A while back, when I was still obsessed with adding followers and increasing my Twitter follower count, I crossed virtual paths with one of the ‘Tweet Elites’ (#TE) – those rarefied Twitter users with 5 and 6 digit follower counts. After establishing what amounts to a ‘relationship’ with this user (that is, we agreed to follow each other) I began to tweet some of her ‘friends’.

In order not to scare them off with random tweets from someone they didn’t know, I included the Twitter user name of the Tweet Elite I’d just met.

Bad Idea (BI#)

Before you could say ‘retweet’ I was being accused of being a spammer – read: ‘stalker’, because I dared mention the #TE’s name in my tweets.

What ensued for me was red faced panic, fearing that I’d be blacklisted on Twitter – that my online reputation would never recover from the red letter that had been painted on my virtual identity – ‘S’ for SPAMMER!

HELP!

After enlisting the help of some other trusted Twitter friends, and begging for an offline meeting with the offended party (well, offline as in off Twitter – we still sorted things out via Email) I was able to convince the #TE that I wasn’t a spammer. She eventually tweeted her group of 5 digit followers, letting them know that I was #OK after all.

The Aftermath

In the months that have passed since this incident, I’ve come to realize how ridiculously naïve it was to think that any of this ever mattered to anyone. The lifespan of an average tweet is measured in seconds before it’s forgotten and relegated to the dust bin of Google cache. To think that anyone cared ‘@donpower is a spammer!’ seems so self important now – but it seemed a much bigger deal at the time.

I no longer care about follower counts or offers from strangers (“Spammers!”) promising to increase my followers on Twitter. I’ve ‘unfollowed’ at least half of the people following me and yes, for a fleeting second I was concerned that a hundred or so of those promptly unfollowed me. But now I can actually see and read tweets from people I’m genuinely interested in and presumably they can see me now too.

The bottom-line, of course, is that online interactions are fleeting. Though they can be enjoyable, entertaining or informative, they must be viewed like leaves in the wind. Once the wind blows, they are gone!

And perhaps when the leaves have all blown off the trees, we can focus on the songs of the birds.

“Tweet! Tweet!”

Don Power is wondering if anyone else was disappointed when they found out what #hashtags really were. He can be found at @donpower (http://twitter.com/donpower)

photo: @jessewright

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3. Everything you need to know about Twitter you’ve already learned in highschool
4. Nanaimo’s 1st Ever Tweetup a Twemendous Success
5. “THEY are Coming”, says David Risley

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