Twitter Ego

A bad enemy to have

I love and hate Twitter. It’s a great news and opinion aggregator. It allows me to pick the brains of people I admire.

However, Twitter is perhaps my biggest enemy after myself. It’s an app that spreads arrogance quickly to a lot of people in 140 characters. Thus, it’s scalable. [1]

There are three things I dislike about Twitter.

The nosy complex

Imagine a party full of people divided into groups talking about different things. Then imagine someone walking around overhearing conversations. This person keeps breaking in to interrupt and say something without any authority. Twitter allows you to do exactly this in the virtual world, 24/7 from your bed.

A frustration distribution channel

Many people uses Twitter to remark everything they think is wrong with the world. They sustain it poorly in 140 characters full of logical fallacies. Not only is it sometimes disgusting but turns you into a source of a negative virtual vibe.

The tweet-bragger

This is perhaps the least harmful of all but also annoying. It goes against the laws of being likeable. You focus on tweeting about how great you are, all the places you go to and how interesting your life is and not on what other people tweet. People’s most important person is themselves. It’s an uncontrollable desire to let people know what you think or what you’re up to. [2]

Twitter is a dreamland of followers and listeners at the palm of your hand. Something every human instinctively craves for.

There is no point in tirelessly proving people wrong. Being less and less present. Missing out on real stuff about people you actually care about and making statements that change no one’s life. Now whenever I spent more than ten minutes a day on Twitter I know there is something I am avoiding or something I need to change in myself.

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Notes

[1] I believe Twitter is a great tool to stay informed and follow people you admire.

[2] The tweet-bragger complex is based on the human need of what Freud called the desire to be great. “Some authorities declare that people may actually go insane in order to find, in the dreamland of insanity, the feeling of importance that has been denied them in the harsh world of reality.” An excerpt of “How to win friends and influence people” by Dale Carnegie.

(as published on my blog www.romo.vc)