My 1st (and only) twitter post (sort of rant), I promise!

So my latest online adventure this week has been to actively become a part of Twitter. I first created an account in 2008 via the email prompting of a friend, but other than the occasional post, didn't actually use it until the last week or so. I will start off by saying that I really like it. I have already met and conversed with some great artists and interesting people. In real life, I tend to be a bit of a social recluse, avoiding groups and crowds as much as possible. Twitter is perfect in that sense- I can join in and out of conversations and have "small-talk" without any of the uncomfortable feelings that say, come with standing in a room trying to engage in a group of people. . . In general, I am much more of a one-on-one or small intimate gatherings kind of person.

There are, however a couple of things that drive me a little nutty... like,

"Online marketer/entrepreneur" why do you want to follow me? Generally, I try/want to follow back those that follow me and if your bio makes you sound like a human being with varied life interests, then I am most likely going to follow you... for a bit- because if every tweet is about telling me how I can make thousands of dollars on the web in a month with your "strategies", I will quickly unfollow you. Have you looked at my art? Then you would know that I am about as far away as you can get from your target market.

Alas, you will probably never read this blog. Unless, of course, you are actually interested in me as as person, in which case, we can be friends. I have been pleasantly surprised on several occasions.

Here's another.... I write one particular word in my twitter post. Someone has used some kind of application to do a search with that keyword and automatically followed everyone who has used that word, etc. Like today, I used the word TV when replying so someone's post. Immediately I see that I am now being followed by a twitter user who "loves TV" and only posts about TV shows.
I personally don't really like TV and rarely watch it. And if they had read my actual post, they would see that my post was about a documentary I watched about the history of the telescope. That one is a little more gray- maybe I love TV? who knows, but it bothered me a little for some reason. When I choose to follow people, you can guarantee that I have taken the time, one by one to read your site/blog and your bio... I sort of like the idea of slowly building a community of like-minded people, not randomly trying to have as many followers as possible. But I guess I understand perhaps why someone would. Like I said earlier, I am more of small gatherings person, so the idea of having a thousands of followers that I am following is something that I would have to work up to slowly.

So that's why I wouldn't follow back someone who follows me. The only reason I might actually take the plunge and "unfollow" (which I still feel a little guilty about) is

1) you are an artist who I have followed and you decide not to follow me back. But I get to see all of your posts all the time and they are things like..."drinking wine right now". "hanging out with friends".... It's okay that you don't want to follow me for whatever reason. Maybe you don't like my work, maybe you don't like my posts, or think we have anything in common really. But I personally see twitter as a conversation, not a fan club. So I will unfollow soon- though if I REALLY love your artwork, I might secretly read your blog, or even follow it instead :).

and finally...
2) you have followed me and I have followed you back, or vice versa. But you regularly will fill up my entire tweetdeck page with posts, where I have to work to see what anyone else is doing. And I'm not talking a few in a row... I'm talking dozens... regularly. Or, you know who you are (and I'm sure is not reading this!), you post every few hours the EXACT same nine or ten posts of news feeds..... for days. I'm still not sure when you rotate them... I couldn't wait that long.

Okay, maybe I am feeling a little bratty today :). Like I said above, I really like twitter and love many of the inspiring and interesting posts I have read. Plus been able to get on the websites of some wonderful artists, whose work I might not have otherwise seen. It's a great community of people all over the world and that is very cool. I just needed to have the therapy of writing a few of the things that I know I will just have to get used to, that's all.

Cheers!