Pressure??? Tweet it away...

Twitter has been one of the most interesting social networks for the past few years and everyday, thousand of users tweet away what they feel, what they’re doing or their latest achievements. Very good! In fact, it’s inspiring to see other people doing very well and also sympathise with those that rant about their bad days or moans and groans.

However, this social network has changed people’s personality – for the good and for the bad. It’s even provided some with wonderful opportunities. But during the first few months of my twitter experience, I started following celebrities and a few people that I knew. Trying to figure out how it works, I would tweet something which most ‘tweeps’(my followers) didn’t relate to. After minutes or hours of waiting, No retweet or mention whatsoever. How sad, I thought!

‘What was I doing wrong?’ I asked myself. I thought it’s like facebook. You post something and whatever it is, people would comment.  So, I decided to stop tweeting for a few days and observe twitter for a few days. In my observance, tweets with sexual innuendos or snide comments would fill my twitter timeline. People adopted a different personality to that of their original one. It was a foreign environment to me.

By trying to fit, I decided to adopt the same personality and have an alter-ego. Tweeted what I thought was cool and trendy at that time and hoped that I would feel part of the twitter society.  I do confess, the pressure got to me.  ‘Perhaps, if I had to ‘tweak’ my personality a bit and become a mean machine like others then that would boost my twitter credibility’. Those were the thoughts that occupied my mind.

But, it didn’t last long before I decided to scratch the whole alter ego trend, it wasn’t who I am. Truth is, I’m not cool and quite frankly, I wouldn’t want to even be part of the cool kids club (in this case, young adults). Instead, I went back to tweeting about myself and my ‘uncool’ state of being.

I didn’t need validation from anyone and most of these people aren’t my friends, so why should I bother myself?  I said. These are just random people I hardly even know. With that attitude, I equipped myself with my OWN twitter rules and they are: Never ask for a follow back should I follow someone first.

Always follow back to those that have taken a chance to deal with my drab tweets.

Never put my morality at a questionable point.

Tweet whatever I want to tweet.

This list is endless but those are just the few of them. And this ‘trophy’ I was chasing was not even worth my time nor was I prepared to flex my shrewd personality for it.

On twitter, I’ve watched sweet being turn to rotten apples and I certainly didn’t want to part of that. I refused.

‘Twelebs’ as they are called are highly opinionated, rude and they’re not even ashamed of their spelling mistakes (something I take high regard in).  Oh, they have an opinion about everything and they try too hard to act cool without realising that their reputation is at stake.

Maybe I’m taking it a bit too far when I say reputation. Nonetheless, these are future employees, role models – or not, and future entrepreneurs. Who would want to associate themselves with a person of that calibre? A person who shows his stupidity by humiliating others or posting ridiculous pictures? Can’t think of anyone in my social circle… well, me anyway.

Then again, we live in a democratic country and I’m not at liberty to tell you what to tweet nor am I the president of ‘twitterville’, but this is just something I had observed. Of course, some ‘tweeps’ have been a pleasure to follow. Very humble and clever beings, even the air-heads I’m ranting about do provide humour every now and then, but it’s always wise to think before you tweet.

 And if you’re brave enough to follow me, then do so – @phumlani00.