{"id":653,"date":"2012-10-13T13:04:55","date_gmt":"2012-10-13T18:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/?p=653"},"modified":"2012-10-13T13:04:55","modified_gmt":"2012-10-13T18:04:55","slug":"are-these-tweeters-for-real","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/general\/are-these-tweeters-for-real\/","title":{"rendered":"Are these Tweeters for real?"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Disclaimer}. I\u2019m no expert in social media, so read this at your risk… It took my favorite middle daughter, Dannielle, saying \u201cWhy don\u2019t you just buy Twitter followers<\/em><\/strong>\u201d to prompt me to action, needless to say I ignored that “advice”.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had a Twitter account a while now, and completely failed to recognize it for what it really is.\u00a0 I opened the account the day I released my first book, very occasionally I\u2019d log into it, post a thought, and log out.\u00a0 I’d look at the followers<\/em>, and following<\/em> tags and think \u201cHow rude!<\/em><\/strong> I certainly don\u2019t want people following me \u2013 that\u2019s almost like stalking<\/em>.\u00a0 And I certainly don\u2019t want to follow anyone, I\u2019m an individual with views of my own \u2013 I don\u2019t want anyone telling me what to think, I get enough of that every time there\u2019s a political commentary\u2026\u201d\u00a0 And that, was that.<\/p>\n

Then, a while ago, and without my having any idea how \u2013 the \u201cfollowing\u201d tag suddenly had\u00a0a number next to it.\u00a0 Bingo!<\/strong> an email appeared, loudly {well, subduedly [sic], since I use FireFox addons to kill almost everything that isn\u2019t text} proclaiming \u201c@LynnHallbrooks is now following you on Twitter!\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 I felt a strange surge of surprise, an inexplicable, puzzled tingle.\u00a0 It prompted me to new heights, making me spill some words in a \u201cTweet\u201d {along with the coffee I was sipping}.<\/p>\n

Things settled down, days went by, the earth resumed its interrupted orbit of the sun. Then, another shock!\u00a0 Another email, and the number climbed to two.\u00a0 Another burst of inspiration, another bizarre tweet {I\u2019m finding myself prone to these}.\u00a0 I held my breath, and sure enough\u2026 the world began rotating, again.\u00a0 \u201cWow\u201d, I thought, \u201cThis is really, really easy!\u00a0 All I\u2019ve got to do is kick the world every time Twitter stops it, and life goes on.\u00a0 By the end of the century I\u2019ll have almost a hundred followers\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Life was good\u2026<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know what made me do it, I swear, perhaps the voyeur within I strive so hard to suppress \u2013 I just don\u2019t know\u2026 anyway, I clicked on \u201c@LynnHallbrooks\u201d.\u00a0 My dread, that this would cost me another painful detoxing of a thoroughly infected computer, subsided even as my interest arose.\u00a0 Lynn Hallbrooks, is a real person (at least, I think she is), she has a website and is a fellow writer.\u00a0 This time, the world stopped for much longer.\u00a0 It took significant effort to force it into motion, but I managed {or none of us would still be here, obvious as that might seem, I thought I should mention it…}.\u00a0 Sadly, that extended delay cost every one of us dearly \u2013 our planet is now damaged, and will continue to be more so with every tweet I make.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t blame me for this, for I was an innocent drawn into Pandora\u2019s Box by this strangely named \u201c@LynnHallbrooks\u201d\u2026 Blame her, or perhaps the wicked trickster who trapped her in this web before me {come to think of it, all of YOU are to blame \u2013 that\u2019s right \u2013 I mean @you!<\/strong><\/em>}.<\/p>\n

{RemovesTongueFromCheek<\/em>} Actually, I\u2019d like to thank Lynn, though I don\u2019t know her from a bar of soap {I\u2019m pretty sure it’s the lavender scented variety}.\u00a0 Thanks Lynn, for introducing me to this strange gathering, you were my first actual follower!<\/p>\n

PS. If you enjoyed this unabashedly honest litany of lies, say hi to Lynn<\/a> and drop by anytime to read more ravings of a rambling lunatic {that, would be me}, when I\u2019ll talk about my thoughts on what made me click the \u201cFollow\u201d\u2019s that I clicked, and (possibly more importantly) what made me pass on others.<\/p>\n

{Update 1}<\/strong> As promised here’s a link to my Thoughts, on Twitter Bio\u2019s<\/a><\/p>\n

{Update 2}<\/strong> Here’s another link, to my motivations for using Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

{Update 3}<\/strong> And, another, to tools to try and control Twitter<\/a> {I’m failing, dismally}.<\/p>\n

If you’re interested in origins, as am I, this particular tale started on Twitter. You can read the unfolding twitter tale here<\/a>.\u00a0 Or, if you prefer to view the thoughts I hold most dear, well – head on over to “[Tweets]<\/a>“.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Disclaimer}. I\u2019m no expert in social media, so read this at your risk… It took my favorite middle daughter, Dannielle, saying \u201cWhy don\u2019t you just buy Twitter followers\u201d to prompt me to action, needless to say I ignored that “advice”. I\u2019ve had a Twitter account a while now, and completely failed to recognize it for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}