(This post is part of the #WhyITweet series on Twitter)Sociability This question can pretty much be answered in one word: sociability! Twitter, for me, is simply a forum for bringing people together. It's a very basic human need to have social interaction, to talk, and to listen.
I live in the middle of nowhere in East Anglia. I moved here from Central London and Twitter has completely transformed my relationship to living here. Twitter has become an integral part of my life: I flick my phone on in the morning and check my @mentions, I respond to any messages that come during the day, and in the evening I love reading what people are up to and quite simply "chatting" online.
On Twitter I can access a whole range of people: "my" kind of people (as a lefty, Europhile, vegetarian, gay man they're in somewhat short supply where I live) as well as all sorts of other people I would not otherwise talk to. I love the range of perspectives: I literally follow from 16 year olds up to people in their 70s. I can chat to journalists, actors, students, mums, QCs, feminists, politicians, a bishop: people of all backgrounds and interests - many of whom I wouldn't have access to in real life. It literally does broaden my horizons and view of life. A huge eye-opener has been the subject of depression: people can be incredibly frank and this is hugely valuable and genuinely educational. When these issues are presented in the context of real people's experiences, you tend to listen.
Making & Keeping In Touch With Friends Because I see Twitter as a social hub, I like to meet people off it too. If I go down to London I find that people who tweet regularly seem to be more likely to meet up on the spur of the moment, and share this casual sociability. In true OCD fashion I keep a list of people I've met from Twitter (this means met and actually spoken to). It's currently on 173 people. Almost everyone is pretty much how I imagined them to be from their online persona. I find it wonderful that I can drive, say to Manchester, and see signposts for towns where I know people from Twitter live. I have a network of friends across the country, and indeed to a lesser extent, abroad.
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| Wonderful people: everyone of whom I know from Twitter |
I've tweeted 107,000 times in about 2 and a half years. That sounds like a horrendously high amount of times. A quick count of today's tweets (it's currently 6pm on a Saturday) shows I've tweeted 197 times - however only 12 are general tweets to all my followers. 185 are "conversation" tweets, where I've been interacting with someone, either answering a tweet of theirs or answering a tweet they've sent to me. Over time I've noticed people forming real, overlapping networks of friends. It is a social community: we share good times, we have a moan. It's what people do. I don't tweet, as some do, primarily as a broadcasting platform without follow-up interaction. I'm here to talk to people, some of whom I regard as very real friends in every sense of the word. I also don't just talk about one subject as some do (e.g law or politics): it's everything for me.
I also tweet to keep in touch with "real life" friends. I find emails so onerous to answer, and who calls nowadays anyway (except my Mutti, obviously)? Tweeting is a brilliant way to keep in touch. They're fast, short and I very rarely find responding to my @ mentions a pain in the way I do sitting down and answering some great long email. Some of my friends are abroad, in China or Australia: it means we stay in touch day to day in a way we wouldn't if we had to mechanically call, email or write letters (Remember them? I don't, but I saw some in a museum once.)
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| Who DOESN'T like seeing @LassieOscar? |
I love tweeting my thoughts and experiences: from "serious topics" such as sharing my views on current affairs, through to my disasters in the kitchen, or pictures of my dog. I know sufficient people on Twitter, that it's rare that a tweet, no matter how mundane, will not get some kind of response. There is always someone "listening", no matter what time of day. I've experienced being lonely in real life, both in London and living up here. It sounds a bit ridiculous to someone who doesn't understand the medium, but it's nice to know that if I see some twatty sign somewhere, there are people there to share it with and have a laugh about it. It's basic social interaction via a photo, an app, and a smartphone.
Is It Just About Egos?I'm not dishonest enough to say that there isn't a bit of an ego-boost in knowing people will be prepared to listen to me and find me interesting enough to follow me. Of course we all like it when people follow us. However, I'm also not enough of a knob to realise the truth in the following tweet, from my "real life" friend Jamie in Australia. He's always GREAT in bringing people down a notch in true, blunt Aussie fashion.
If your sense of self-worth is dependent on how many people follow you and how many retweets you get a week, your relationship to Twitter is probably not that healthy.
The Good And The Bad Again, Twitter is people (and of course sometimes people pretending to be their pets. Ahem). They can inform me, challenge me, make me laugh, make me cry: that's just what people do. It is something I regard as an integral part of my life. I met my stunning boyfriend Ste through it. I find this literally amazing, wonderful and exciting all in one. (No blog is of course nowadays complete without making you all reach for the bucket. I therefore thought I'd slip that in there as a reminder.) I incidentally don't think Twitter has become "less fun" over the time I've been on here: more people have joined, and I'm constantly meeting new, interesting folk.
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| Just in case anyone needs it, here's one |
Sometimes there's abuse: my big brother, who doesn't really "get" the whole thing recently pensively asked me "is it worth it?". This was after the colourful tweets I received from Assange supporters. Yes it is worth it: on average for the one trolling message, I receive probably 1000 pleasant ones. There are pillocks in life: I hardly feel threatened by keyboard warriors at the other side of the country directing their pathetic abuse at me hidden behind an egg avatar. If it weren't bringing me pleasure, I wouldn't be on Twitter.
Last, This BlogThe last reason I tweet is to promote this, my blog. My blog doesn't exist separately from my Twitter experience: it's just a form of "Twitlonger" with pictures. I love it when people read it, share it and comment on it. I can do the same thing I here that I do on Twitter: voice my thoughts from the mundane through to sharing
very personal reflections..You're one of these people, so as ever, thank you for reading :)
UPDATE: Two interesting things came out of chats on Twitter this morning about this post:
1) It's not just sociability. It's about being able to
switch it on and off when it suits you. If you want quiet, it's not like having friends or relatives around for the evening or weekend. It's take it or leave it and no one notices or objects. This is, I guess, pretty selfish in a way, but it's this instant access sociability that is a key thing that I like.
2) For gay men it's a really important way of
making gay friends without the omnipresent background context of sex involved in talking to people in bars, on Gaydar or Grindr. Twitter isn't a dating site: it's a place to get to know gay men with their shirts on for a change. Guys on Gaydar and Grindr can say what they want about "looking for friends" - we all know it's bull. I've seen tweets saying "I've never had actual gay friends before Twitter". That is *wonderful*.
