Twitter

Yesterday, I posted a formspring question for Jeph Jacques (of Questionable Content):

>>For those of us on Twitter who are fans and not RL friends, if you tweet something that we want to comment on, is it fun/conversational or annoying/creepy/intruding if we toss in our two cents with an @jeph tweet?

>>uh isn't that what twitter is FOR?

To put it simply, whatever Jeph might say, Twitter scares me. Jeph Jacques is a case example of why that is, because he’s got almost 40,000 followers — think about that number, and for context how long it takes you to read a single email. The celebs we follow have plenty of RL friends on Twitter, so I get worried that if I tweet, I’m drowning out an actual conversation with fan-babble.

I imagine it going like this: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/4/16/.

That’s the thing that throws me off: Twitter isn’t just about interfacing with fans, so it smudges the line between that and hanging out with friends. If I comment on anything, it feels like I’m leaning over someone’s shoulder and barging into the conversation.

Granted, in real life, that’s a great way to meet people (albeit with a little more respect for personal space), but the key to that is knowing whether you’re welcome; if you’re doing all the talking or none of the talking, it’s time to leave. On Twitter, you probably aren’t going to get a response, so you’ve got no idea whether the person on the other end is laughing and moving on to the next thing or reaching for the e-Mace.

Really, if you want to boil it down, I have a very British fear of imposing — if I were at a crime scene, I’d probably wait until the cop finished his conversation with the EMT before asking if they could stitch up the bullet hole in my shoulder.

//Actually, I am Canadian by conception… which is one of the weirdest things possible to be proud of, but hail Britannia!

I’ll take Jeph’s advice and not worry about whether I’m a creeper — it’s not like I’ll be saying anything that could possibly be worse than a time-waster, anyways. So when the Giants crush the Dodgers tonight and take the NL West lead, I’ll probably throw out an

@wilw tweet… but I’ll still feel weird about it.

//Written before tonight’s game, which the Giants did in fact win. NL West leaders, now ‘til the end of the season!