Sunday, July 18, 2010

When everything has to be # -ed: Confessions of a Twitter Addict

How well do you know any of the following:
  1. Twitter
  2. Tweet
  3. Followers/Following
  4. Unfollow
  5. Retweet
  6. Trending Topics
  7. @username
  8. DMs 
  9. Twitter is Overcapacity
  10. Verified Account
  11. Justin Bieber
  12. Tweetphoto/Twitpic
  13. Twitlonger
  14. Snaptu/Hootsuite/Nimbuzz/Pixelpipe/Gravity/TweetDeck/UberTwitter/Twaitter
  15. #nowplaying
  16. #MusicMonday
  17. FollowFriday (#FF)
  18. Hope140
  19. Jack Dorsey/Biz Stone
  20. Who.unfollowed.me/Qwitter

So....how well did you fare?

Scores
0 : Clearly you are not into social media and have never heard of Twitter. Looks like I have to break it down. According to the folks over at Wikipedia; "Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers."

1- 5: So you have heard about Twitter? You probably had a peek at a friend's account but still do not see the use.You are convinced that people join Twitter to find out what Demi Moore (Kutcher) had for breakfast and so you think its pointless.

6-12: You have a Twitter account. You joined out of curiosity but  yet you still fail to see the use. You can't even remember your username and password.

13-18: You are on Twitter. You enjoy news updates or occasional words of wisdom from people you follow. You check your account from time to time but can go days or weeks without being on Twitter. You are in a good place.

more than 18:  You are a complete Tweethead; an absolute Twitter addict  who craves a Twitter fix morning, noon and night.

Symptoms of Twitter addiction may include:
  • Panic at your inability to log on to Twitter either through phone network malfunctioning, internet downtime or the dreaded ""Twitter is over capacity. Please wait a moment and try again" message

  • Your number of Tweets exceeds 2000+ even though you have only been on Twitter for a few months

  • You are on Twitter at odd times of the day: 1am, 3am or 5am 

  • No one around you understands why you are on Twitter and is still hooked on Facebook or even (tragically) hi5

  • You use Twitter to find directions to places or get recommendations for movies, restaurants or software

  • You send messages to friends on Twitter instead of texting them

  • You start to # everything on #Facebook. You refer to your friends in text messages, facebook or emails as @James and start to restrict your facebook status to 140 characters
What I'm desperately trying to understand is how I went from seeing Twitter as futile and useless to being a complete Tweethead. I  now have  4,485 Tweets to my credit and counting. Anyway, I have accepted it and I'm off to get my fix. If you are looking for me, you know where to find me! 

7 comments:

Kwabena said...

lol. great post. laughed to the end. funniest part is '.... you are a complete tweethead'. the symptoms are spot on. you were talking about me there.

Abena Serwaa said...

*LOL* thanks @Kwabena, my fellow #tweethead! Still don't think you are as bad as me though. Anyway, catch you back at #Twitter.

novisi said...

i scored zere and it really looked like a globe almost. lol.
you got me laughing.

Abena Serwaa said...

@Novisi, that is so funny! I think scoring zero is a good thing! I wish I had not been curious about Twitter...I'm a complete addict.

Abena Serwaa said...

Thanks Hybrid! Will check your blog out..

Enyonam said...

lol. Interesting post Abena. I scored 7 and the assessment is so true. I'm even lucky that the page automatically signs in whenever I go to twitter else.....

I'm still trying to figure out whether I need it or not. I'm already addicted to facebook. Am I ready for another?

Abena Serwaa said...

*LOL* @Enyonam Good for you scoring 7! I had a serious facebook addiction but I seemed to have replaced this with my Twitter obsession. I think this is because I love the way you have live updates from news around the world coming in rapidly.Facebook is great for news on what your friends are doing while Twitter is more like cutting edge global news and much more.