I was at the computer typing a blog post for another site when my computer dinged by way of saying, “You have mail.” So, of course, I looked. The message said: “So-and-so is now following your tweets on Twitter.” I had to laugh. I got myself a Twitter account on February 3, 2010. I made 40 brief entries, the last one on May 11, 2010. And after that I’ve never even visited my Twitter site until today—and today only to make the counts I have just cited. Now why, you might wonder, would So-and-so wish to follow my tweets?
Here is a revealing glimpse at one aspect (and emphatically not the only one) of social networks and one (but not the only) purpose that they serve: a bid for visibility by the world’s invisible. Of course I may be unfair to So-and-so; he may know me from a blog and anticipate stunning insights from my tweets as well. But I wonder. Twitter enables people to “follow” other twitters, and when someone clicks to follow your stream, you gain a “follower.” The more followers you have, the more popular you are. People therefore follow you—hoping that you’ll reciprocate. Much as people “friend” you on Facebook. For a while there I had a veritable rash of young women who tried to friend me even though I couldn’t discover even a breath of a reason why they might want to do so.
I put So-and-so’s “following” into the same worn and heavy kit-bag I have underneath my desk collecting instances of the “events” that take place in the strange world of connectedness, social networking, information aging, global communications, and other odd marvels that this time produces…and makes people think that things, they are a-changing.
Filed under: Communications Tagged: | Facebook, Twitter
