Twit - Tweet - What's It All About?

From Barack Obama to Stephen Hawkins - 'Blanket' Jackson to Death Row inmates (via their supporters); seems like  everyone is Twittering these days.

In the 24 hours it takes the world to turn, over 150 million Tweets have been sent from 140 million people across the globe; 10 million here in the UK. And this monster's growing by the month! Even I have finally joined the Twitter crowd (I once stated on radio that I never would).

If Facebook is the king of social networking (for now) Twitter rules supreme as a microblogging service. No silly games to play. No bolted on distractions. You write what you're thinking/doing in 140 characters or less and hit the send button - BOOM - you've just Tweeted!


But that's not all...

There's the 'Following' obsession. With Facebook, we're selective about who we add to our 'Friends' list, and we'll delete someone in the blink of an eye if we're not impressed by them (well, I do). With Twitter, it's quite the reverse - "Follow me" "Follow me" "Follow me". It's all about getting your numbers up. If you have 10,000 followers you must be someone cool, or so it goes.

This leads to the occasional spate on Twitter, especially between those that have known one another in real life for many years, yet one refuses to follow the other. And strangers that we follow who won't follow us back can wind us up. What's the matter with these fools? Don't they realise our Tweets are amazing? Angry Tweets can be fired off to these non followers. "F*ck you, then" probably accounts for a third of all Tweets sent, probably!

click to enlarge

Why wouldn't someone follow us if we are following them? And why wouldn't we follow someone if we know them in person and they are following us?

A few reasons...

Many people Tweet crap. What they/we write just isn't interesting.

Many people Tweet so much it clogs up our 'Timeline'; we can't see the wood for the trees.

And some people we couldn't stand when we knew them, why the hell are we going to follow them on Twitter. The reverse of that is also true... they never could stand us in real life.

Why won't celebrities follow us and reply to the Tweets we send them?

Well three reasons I can think of...

Because, put simply, who the f*ck are we to them?! A celebrity might mean something to us, but we mean nothing, absolutely nothing, to a celebrity!

Many celebrity accounts aren't actually the writings of the celebs themselves, but members of their PR team. Tom Cruise (@TomCruise) is a good example.

And, another reason must be because they get so many Tweets coming at them it's just not possible to reply to all of them. Remember, our celebrities are busy people. They have tanning booths and waxes then photo shoots and interviews and endless meetings with the great and the good to be getting on with. And somewhere amongst all of that they have to get some actual work done. If we can call what many of them do, actual work?

Even these two are on Twitter

So what should we Tweet?

Well, anything, really, within 140 characters per Tweet. But we need to make them as interesting as we can for our followers, because they're going to see them! Not interesting = few, if any followers; they'll not follow us for long if we continually pound their 'Timeline' with crap! And if we have zero followers, then who the hell are we Tweeting to but ourselves; what's the point in that?

We can Tweet about our mood - our day - what's on our mind - our opinion about something - a question. We can Tweet photos, videos and links.

I often, but not always, Tweet what I suppose is, considered rubbish. It can be viewed as mostly crap, but I have at least considered it before Tweeting it. My mind tells me that that's all right, then.

Here's just a handful of my considered rubbish...

"First alien: 'Did earth get our message?' Second alien: 'Yes, but they've called it Drum 'n Base and dance to it.'"


"Okay, I just found Bruce Lee on Twitter! Them lying newspapers from the 1970's telling us he'd died. Must dash, gotta hunt down Elvis."


"Huh, interesting. I've just gone and found Jack The Ripper on Twitter. How come the police haven't in 124 years?"


"If Diana's on here I want a refund for those flowers I bought in '97."


"I daren't even search Twitter to see if the Titanic is on here. Betcha any money it is though, and verified with a blue badge and everything."

Nothing earth shattering, but you get the idea. Some people prefer to Tweet endless links to news stories, or talk about their favourite football team, or promote the hell out of their websites, Blogs, business etc (celebrities are notorious on Twitter for plugging their wares!).

If you're new to Twitter and feeling a little overwhelmed, my advice is to just enjoy it for what it is. Follow who you feel is worth following; ignore the Muppets. Try NOT to focus on how many people are following you; it isn't a measure of your worth in this life!

Only follow celebs if you actually care what they have to say. Always remembering that they care very little, if anything at all, for what you have to say!

And, if you're so inclined, you can follow me @SirDannyBoy1 (I follow back if I think the person might Tweet interesting stuff).

If you're not, no worries.

Either way, have fun, my peeps.

Do NOT click this pic or you'll be following me on Twitter!