The long and short of Twitter

I put this on a shared blog but the more I read it the more I like it.

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140 characters to create a new you
A timeline of words
To hide behind

140 characters to say what you need
Attention, comfort
A sense of being

140 characters to break lives
Fake hellos
Twisted goodbyes

140 characters to fall in love
Words flirt
Emotions intense

140 characters to make new friends
Soul mates to care
Hands to hold

140 characters is sometimes all I have.

Twitter Fail

I have to say, I think I am falling out of love with Twitter.

It feels like a lot of relationships all ending at the same time and I feel a little sad about it, but at the same time, I can’t put my finger on what Twitter is about at the moment.

I have been open about how much Twitter has helped me and I am the first to admit that I have been a little addicted at times, but it has, I believe changed me in a positive way. I have made a number of friends and a few very good friends who I know will be long-term buddies. I have travelled to meet people and at times when I have been lonely on my own, or when I have had a bad day at work, I have been able to get some support and kindness from some lovely people and virtual hugs always work.

So why am I falling out of love with it? Well, I don’t think I like what it is becoming and the avenues it is used for. Sometimes I feel it is a popularity contest, yet as stated by @iamhewhoisiam, ‘It is more about the quality of followers as opposed to quantity’ I can’t agree with this more. Twitter is about dialogue and conversation, about discussion and kindness and not about bullying, as we have seen this week with Keith Chegwin. I missed most of the issues this week around Chegwen but picked up on it from Diary of a Ledgers blog. Cheggers was in the wrong but he didn’t deserve such a response.

Twitter has also made me feel sad recently because of how people air their insecurities and their troubles. I know things are said and photos are posted because of a craving for attention, which is fine but there is no need for them to be so open – people will always respond anyway because they are nice people. I don’t really understand the mentality of it. I just wish they could see they are beautiful people who perhaps need to look at making some changes in their lives to find the complete happiness they deserve.

Then there is the clique. I have noticed over the past few weeks this has got worse. Some people only talking to particular friends which again is fine, but if someone tweets you, whether you follow or not, isn’t it just polite to respond? Or embrace what the point of Twitter is and have conversations with other people as well as the same few. Twitter has been a bit of a lonely space for me and I don’t know why. I don’t think my tweets have changed and I don’t think I have done anything offensive but the interaction just doesn’t seem to be there.

On Wednesday, I had a work meeting about a one of the brands I manage and had to talk about why a game/treasure hunt that I ran through Twitter didn’t quite work. To me it was fun and easy, but with only a few responses, it was decided that Twitter is still too new and people don’t understand it. I found this hard to understand; having been on Twitter for nearly 18 months it makes sense to me and it does work both on a social and business level. But thinking about my friends, they aren’t on it, so maybe it is still new and we haven’t all worked out what it is for.

And maybe that is it. Maybe many of the people I used to tweet a lot with are now busy with their lives, that they no longer understand the need or perhaps just taking a step back to see what happens with it.

Maybe I am just getting busy with life. In any case, Twitter doesn’t seem to be doing for me right now but I know I can’t walk away.

It has power.. I will give it that!

New words, new sites, new ways

My tonsillitis is clearing, but I still see it necessary to eat a lot of comfort food (I have just devoured quarter of a toffee and pecan cheesecake), wear baggy knitted cardigans, drink excessive amounts of tea and go to bed very early.

Whilst eating and drinking lots, I have been finding lots of fab blogs and sites and new pretty things for my kitchen, which will hopefully be finished soon.

Socrates Adams- Florou has started an adventure blog called Choose your own adventure. The suspense is brewing; the chapters are a result of people voting for a particular outcome. I think it might get weird. Fantastic.

Save the word is a brilliant site (a recent find whilst reading Beth's blog), so many words, so much inspiration. I am liking the words: Mulomedic, quibbleism and pigritude. I am wondering who writes the definitions:

bumposopher - one learned in bumps

Mary's boyfriend is a bumposopher, and couldn't stop fondling everyone's head at the dinner table.

I have spent a considerable amount of time on twitter today, I signed up a week or so ago with no idea on what it is or what you are meant to do. Anyway, I am there to twit me or whatever it is.