So I got back on Twitter on a sunny, rather mundane afternoon in April. I signed in with a thought in my head going, if Twitter was a person, the first thing I'd say to it was, " Enchante, I've heard SO much about you". I signed up for Twitter a few years ago because someone told me I had not lived until I had used Twitter. I pinched the sod and wiped the remnants of my Hershey's bar or any food that I ate for the next few days to prove that I was very much alive without yet another social networking obligation. I never knew what Twitter was nor did I know what it's purpose was. I found it rather awkward and on a very large scale creepy, that you could actually 'follow' people. At least Twitter's open about the whole 'following' deal. Facebook uses the guise of 'Add as a 'friend' ' to cover up one's desire to stalk or innate sense of curiosity.
At first, I was like a crazed waiting-to-be-socially-acceptable teen with a brand new cellular phone, waiting to prove to the world the wonders of her texting abilities and the extent to which she can misspell simple words and make them sound so extremely disastrous yet equally cool. I followed every band I could think of, every brand I used, every show I've ever watched and every sportsperson I've been in awe of. I tweeted and retweeted everything that was tweetable, until two months later I was like, "What are you doing with your life?"
I get social media. I will not criticize it to the extent of saying that it is bad because it does indeed have it's advantages. Twitter is one such example, you get updates on everything you possibly could, you meet people with similar interests, it is fun! The whole 140 character limit stirs up one's creative juices too. What I did realize however but didn't take notice of is that you're interacting mostly with complete strangers. People you don't know follow you. And without noticing, the more I followed, the more followed me. The turning point of my Twitter usage was when I got some really weird messages in my inbox, and pictures of someone who was obviously rather desperately attempting to give people a lesson in biology. Not my first choice of a wake up call but hoo boy I couldn't sleep the rest of that morning which was my initial plan.
Something I've learnt over the years is that anything that you do, must be done in moderation and kept in check. Clearly I didn't follow that as I went over board MANY MANY times with a variety of things. I'm talking junk, too many push ups which led to a twisted shoulder, too much socializing, don't think dirty you lot! Like Liza says in 'My Fair Lady', "Am a good gurl eye am".
Unfortunately, social media is a waste of time. I've been off Facebook for a few months now. I was tempted to get back on every now and again, but I really didn't see the point. I talk to everyone I need to via other means, and I now know that I can productively use my time for other more important things than check who has been where and what the rest of the world is upto. We tend to get lost in everyone else's world and completely lose track and sight of the fact that we have our own to live.
As philosophical as I may sound, it is the truth. I don't miss Facebook, and now I've learnt how and when to use Twitter. If you want your focus to be 200 %, I'd say no social media at all. It works wonders. It's so easy to get distracted, even if it's just a 'two-minute break', which in this day and age actually means a two hour break.
I actually like Twitter more than Facebook. You get updates on only the things and people you follow, discover new bands, people and other shizz, you look like a first class nutter talking to yourself on your profile which suits me just fine because that's what I'm doing for the most part of my time; talking to myself. If you know how to balance all of these modern day techies and the shenanigans they come along with, brilliant! It's a good way to wind down after a hard long day of doing not-a-whole-lot.
I shall end this post by saying, Tweet people the way you want to Tweeted. It is essential in this mysterious Twittersphere.
Have a Tweet day.
I'm done now.
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