So I joined Twitter because part of the whole getting my blog out there and proclaiming my intentions into cyberspace apparently includes tweeting. I simply don’t get it. As I have previously mentioned I am completely tech ignorant, but, really? Do we need to know what we are all doing every minute of every day? It strikes me as slightly narcissistic, this need to put it all out there for public consumption. (Said the girl blogging very publicly about her life.) I get the whole Facebook thing because in addition to your status updates you have pictures, you have quotes, there seems to be more there, but Twitter, you log on and there are all these random quotes. It almost feels like you are in a party in a large, loud room with voices reverberating off the walls and everyone is telling you something all at once. Like you aren’t really hearing them all correctly over the din, you never really get the punchline or it seems like there are some inside jokes you're not privy to and I feel like I’m left saying, “Sorry, what was that? Oh wait, I don’t get it.” However in my case when I tweet it is like I am literally calling out into the great, gaping hole of cyberspace and all I hear in return is crickets and deafening silence. And how does one get followers? I vacillate between wanting to amass as many followers as possible (don’t ask me why, I just DO) and total bewilderment at how certain people found me and why they’d want to follow me. I mean, I don’t know these people, do they care what I have to say? Then I think, you better hope they care, you are writing a blog and you want people to read it, right? Right? YES! I do.
Sometimes I’ll be writing a post and I’ll think to myself, “You are posting this on Facebook and Twitter, not just your immediate family and friends are reading this.” Meaning acquaintances and possibly even people I barely know or have never met, in the case of Twitter, now know I was a nerd as a child, I have quite a bit of weight to lose, I had a tendency to be a drunken ass in college, and I am currently jobless and homeless. I know there may be people reading who are possibly thinking, “What a chump.” or “She’ll never do it.” My good friend Emily printed up a few blog posts for a woman I used to work with and am still friendly with to read. When she told me I was thrilled then slightly panicked as I pictured other people at work passing around the copies and gossiping about me. I KNOW that isn’t what happened, but cut me some slack, I worked in cosmetics for crying out loud. Have you ever worked a cosmetics sales floor? It’s like TMZ meets Page Six meets Mean Girls, those people INVENTED gossiping. Maybe I am being paranoid, but it genuinely crosses my mind every time I write a post, how does a private person like myself reconcile the fact that I want as many people as possible to read my blog? Simple answer: I have to get over it. I could make my blog private, accessible only to friends and family, but for some reason I love seeing how many hits a day the blog gets. I like the idea that people are possibly getting inspired, or relating on some level or at least having a chuckle at my expense.
So I’m getting over it and I’m not censoring myself. In the meantime I still really need to work on number 7 On the list. It’s been a busy week so I've been a little time crunched, but the more into the blog I get the more I realize how hopelessly inept I am at all things blog and/or web related. I still have to figure how to permanently post my year long list and I would like to get my life list on here. Additionally I have two friends from college who blog and I would love to figure out how to post a link to their blogs. So much technology, so little time! I have a long weekend coming up (that is jammed packed with family parties, I see some blog material in my future!) hopefully in between the celebrating I can get my Mom to start tutoring me on all things bloggigity. Damn I'm cool. Did I say I was a nerd as a child, make that still is.