Oh my god, I find twittering so intimidating. Am I the only person who agonizes over a tweet, dithers on the update button and then after spending 20 minutes composing the tweet decides not to update after all. I’m alone on this one, right?
I know, it’s absurd. The whole point of micro-blogging is that it’s quick and impulsive. But offline, I’m not the kind of person who is comfortable mingling in a big crowd. I’m more of a one to one person and big personalities scare me. So it was a surprise for me to see that my offline shyness would carry over online. I mean, surely the anonymity of the web would knock that kind of sillyness on the head. Well, apparently not.
For me, twittering is like standing in the middle of a huge chatting crowd . For some reason I’m seeing the crowd gathered in a great big Plazza or Square. Anyhow, the crowd is chatting and there’s a low hum. Then I let out great big shout …. something like “Hey, you guys … I’m listening to Paul Colligan’s podacst. Good stuff!” Everybody looks for a second, ignores me and continues chatting.
I’m just not getting to grips with the “Informal Intimacy” thing that Paul and Alex talkabout in their “Why We Twitter” Podcast. I haven’t found my comfort zone with it. Not yet anyway!
So I’ve had to find a way to compromise and get a handle on my twitter anxiety. People twitter for all kinds of different reasons. Marketers twitter to sell products, build loyalty and gain immediacy with their market, friends twitter to share new stuff in their life. I’m twittering (or not) to learn. I’m following only tweets from people I can learn from. It’s my way of being a part of a social space that I think is amazing but for now, intimidating. The downside, I come off as an anti-social, grumpy boots sitting in the corner rather than sharing in the fun but hey, it’s my comfort zone right now.
On the upside, I’m eaves-dropping on some of the most valuable conversations going on on the web and learning lots. All of which will be empowering I’m sure.
So for now I’m comfortable being an old grumpy boots rather than an obsessive twitterer. I imagine when I have something great to twitter about I’ll be up their with the best of them, getting informally intimate with anybody who willing to listen!
