Twitter and Grease (a delightful combination)

This blog is about Twitter (more than it is about Grease)! I know I have already written a blog on this topic but I feel it is time for an update on my thoughts on the subject. My last blog was less about my personal feelings and more about the productiveness of people using it so this one will be more about the former.

In my last blog I claimed to be merrily using Twitter on a fairly regular basis and this was true. Now, however, I realise I haven’t logged in for an age, nor have I noticed the lack of its presence in my life. This situation emerged because a few weeks ago I did not have internet in my flat and so I stopped being on Twitter all the time. When my internet reappeared, it transpired my enthusiasm of Twitter did not.

I am not sure if this is a recurring trend among people (perhaps you could tell me?) but it feels like it could be. You sign up for something and use it heavily, and then the novelty wears off. This is what happened with me and Twitter. I logged on, I even joined Hootsuite (‘The Professional Twitter Client’) to better manage my account, and I followed lots of people, many of whom I now have forgotten why I did so. I was never much of a tweeter, apart from informing my fellow classmates about my blog being up. I do not appear to be so coy on my Facebook page, where I frequently tell my friends things they do not need to know. I think my shyness on Twitter is more because it felt like it was a ‘work’ thing rather than a personal outlet of my deepest darkest feelings. We have had a lecture on our ‘personal brand’, and it really got me thinking about how we use social media for work and play and how difficult it can be to separate them.

I have been thinking about my short affair with Twitter and I have come to the conclusion that is much like a summer romance (bear with me...). There’s the initial butterfly stage (creating a new account and personalising it), then there is the getting to know one another (that is the following of many people because you think they are interesting). Things go well for a while; there is much chatting (tweeting) and holding of hands (em...don’t have a Twitter equivalent). But then, as the classic song goes, “It turned colder, that’s where is ends, So I told her, we’d still be friends” and things fizzle out. In Twitter terms, this means you start getting irritated by other people’s tweets, you wonder why you decided to follow some silly celebrity, and on the whole it feels like it is too much bother.



I do see the potential of Twitter as a useful tool, and I know that many people are whole-hearted tweeters and so I am not suggesting it is not something which should be considered for PR campaigns. I am just saying that for me and Twitter, the summer nights are over and it’s back to the wet September. I can envisage my enthusiasm increasing when I have to start on my dissertation, as one good thing I can say for Twitter is that is very good for up-to-the-minute academic papers, and so, who knows? Maybe Twitter and I will be reunited and I can wear a cat suit and sing ‘You’re the one that I want’. Don’t panic, I’ll do it in private.