Say what you will about Twitter — I certainly have and will again — but the idea of having hundreds or even thousands of “followers” is a little bit intoxicating. Intoxicating like a fine Merlot or intoxicating like crack remains a debating point, but there’s no denying the psychological impact of a large audience, in any endeavour.
Or at least, the ILLUSION of a large audience.
Sure, when Ashton or Demi or whatever big stars delight us with their latest non-event — “This lineup is taking forever- I need my latte” I’m sure the response is voluminous, immediate, and just as inane. If you have a million followers, all you need is a response rate of a tenth of a percent, and you got a thousand replies.
I wonder how many they read…
When you’re a schmuck like me with just a couple hundred followers or so, the numbers are not so kind at propping up my self-esteem to Hollywood proportions. But there WOULD often be some response. A star here, an RT there, an LOL by DM. (See, I know me some lingo).
It became the goal to nurture that response, to play to expectations, to give as I got, to embrace the notion of having followers.
My first post on Twitter, date January 31, 2009, reads:
[robertgdaniel] is wondering if he really wants “followers”…
It seems I did manage to grow comfortable the concept, at least somewhat. The idea that people might find what you’re saying interesting or provocative enough to actually respond to, well, that’s almost as intoxicating as having a real conversation…
Aha, but the fact that this level of connection happens to be minimal, doesn’t mean it can’t be positive as well. I fav/star* people because I appreciate what they’re doing and want to encourage them to continue. I mean to do it more, in fact!
I think I have heard this new level of human interaction referred to as “ambient connectivity”, but if not, I made it up. Surely though, it can’t be a bad thing, as long as it doesn’t become obsessive, so: nurture away!. Just keep it relaxed, let much of the flow of information go past, and only contribute when it suits you.
If we don’t do that, the firehose of information may knock us down.
*this is meant to directly call attention to favstar.fm, because it is a really nice way to see the kudos from others, and the kudos we give out ourselves.
“ambient connectivity” — that’s awesome, I love that… it’s like wandering around the mall, just absorbing random fragments of humanity…
Thanks for your thoughts!
I hope you keep all your comments on Twitter safely archived somewhere. They need to be bound in a book someday! (Or on “kindle”, if you’re my electronic-loving partner. *rolling eyes*).
Thanks Kari – I did sign up with BackupMyTweets.com way back, so yes, my entire “Year of Twitter” is safely sitting on my desktop now as a single HTML file… grist for the mill… B-)