The World According to Twitter
Passing by a colleague’s desk I was really impressed by his Twitter activity. Suddenly I felt that I was missing out on something big. The whole world was tweeting leaving me behind. Here was I, an occasional writer on social networking and technology, but essentially a non-Tweeter.
I had to do something urgently to restore my street credibility.
I have always been a little cautious about Twitter. Tweets are really short and brevity has never been my strong point. Also, in British English a ‘twit’ is a mentally challenged person. And yet Twitter seems to have become the mouthpiece for the world’s intelligentsia.
Throwing all caution aside, I spent the weekend upgrading my Twitter activity. I had been a member for a long time but rarely tweeted. My first thought was to find friends on Twitter and follow them. So I trawled my email accounts and my network on LinkedIn.
Shock, horror hardly anyone I knew had an active Twitter account, never mind an array of tweets to boast of. Suddenly, the awful truth dawned on me. I was moving in the wrong circles!
By being lackadaisical about Twitter, I had reduced myself to a community of people who were essentially unknown. And according to Oscar Wilde the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.
And Twitter is full of famous people who are talked about.
Take this tweet apparently from Larry Kudlow (I say ‘apparently’ because sometimes you can’t be sure if it really is Larry – the really famous are often parodied in false Twitter accounts):
“2nd half econ depends on dollar. King $ great for growth. Sinking $ will sink econ. Think oil going up or down. Bernank are you listening?”
Is the Chairman of the Federal Reserve really unaware of the economic impact of the exchange rate? Of course he is aware. But this is not just a message to Ben. Larry could have sent him a note. In fact it is a message to all of us. The real message is that Larry and Ben are movers and shakers on our economic stage at least according to Twitter.
So this is great. Finally, I can now move in the right circles. No longer an unknown twit, my voice will also be heard. Perhaps if I get really famous on Twitter someone will create a false or parody account about me.
Then I will know I really have arrived.
Comments
- Anonymous
June 12, 2011
Welcome to Twitter David! I looking forward to reading your insightful thoughts in real-time...