The reason I got Twitter is that you can make it into your own personalised RSS style news feed. I'm now being kept posted on everything that goes on the indie music world, cycling, speed skating and off course some general news. And I must admit: Twitter is an absolute joy in that way. Today for instance, I heard about Wouter Bos resigning from politics before it even appeared on the NOS website (and then witnessed how both 'Wouter Bos' and 'Job Cohen' made it into the London trending topics). The sports stuff is, if possible, even more fun as you can 'follow' individual athletes. Fränk and Andy Schleck are hilarious in that way. Even though they're on the same team and brothers, their communication seems to solely depend on Twitter, where you can, for instance, follow their discussions on how to brake when your hands are so cold you can't squeeze the actual breaks (I think Dave Zabriskie came up with some doubtfully efficient methods in the end). And then there's Twitter guru's as Stephen Fry and Wendy Roby whose 'tweets' are so delightful they make you want to get up in the morning. Or, in Mr Fry's case, put you onto YouTube jems like the trailer below.
But as with everything, Twitter also has its downsides, which for me are my followers. In a dark, twisted sort of way I find this rather exciting, as I feel it gives me some kind of cult-status. Though that is probably 'cult' in the 'Let's all commit suicide together on Doomsday' meaning of the word rather than the aspired Jarvis Cocker/arty/cultural credibility meaning. But aside from that, in the three days I've so far been on Twitter, I've gathered a following of five people of whom I've got absolutely no idea who they are or why they're following me, which is very reminiscent of some not so very cheerful lyrics by Pulp:
I'm being followed home, / I'm being followed home,
I don't know what for, / I don't know by whom.
In a way, I'm doing the same thing: I'm following 67 people by now, all of whom do not know me. But I have got a reason to follow them, be that because I'm love with the music they create (Zola Jesus for instance), because of their whit and inspiring columns (Wendy Roby) or because its just a news feed (the Guardian). By following me, your just following some random person. I'm completely flabbergasted and utterly confused why someone would even want to follow me as, to my knowledge, I'm still not massively famous in any way.
As opposed to other social networking websites, such as Facebook or Last.FM, you do not request to be allowed to follow someone, you just do. So far, I have discovered that some people just start following you hoping that you'll be prompted to start following them as well, which will eventually lead to a large following and a supposed internet popularity. As following someone who is following you would just lead to going round in circles, without ever progressing to something productive, I do not comply with this concept.
I'm just hoping that the anonymity implied by Twitter will stop anyone from actually knocking me out, as happens in the Pulp song, whether in real life or virtually.
No comments:
Post a Comment