Tommy Collison

I briefly touched on this subject in Markets, earlier this month.

I’ve been on Twitter since February of 2008. I’ve seen people come and go; there are some people I’d like to see more of, and some who I think should learn to shut up every once in a while (and maybe even me sometimes)

I think that among Irish tweeters there’s an annoying lack of originality and diversity, but even worse, there seems to be one set way of doing things, and those who try to do their thing outside of that way get lambasted and put down and get branded as ‘idiots’ or ‘fools’ who are ‘doing it wrong’.

Photo owned by pasukaru76 (cc)

This came to the fore when people started complaining that SimplyZesty tweeted their new blog posts from their account, and also Niall and Lauren, the authors, would do likewise. Reading over this, I thought I’d forgotten something; some little detail. Some incendiary device that’s got everyone in a hullabaloo. Are people honestly getting really worked up about a tweet? Unfortunately they are.

It’s as if there’s a Gestapo going around making sure everyone’s conforming. Surely the marker of company success is by the customers; and whether or not they like and buy and use the service. How other companies operate should be of little concern of yours, right?

There seems to be a problem too that people have a bloated sense of their own importance; you maintain that numbers aren’t important, and then snobbishly treat unfollowing someone as the ultimate thumbs-down in the Gladiator arena. ‘Following’ isn’t this holy covenant. I treat it flimsily; I don’t give a dingo’s kidney whether you follow me back. I follow you because I get something out of your tweets. I only care if you follow me if I need to DM you.

The great thing about Twitter is the diversity; the opportunity to chat with people that you wouldn’t meet or engage with otherwise. It’s in your interest to follow people whose views differ to yours, who live in different locations, are in a different culture; generally do things differently. In doing a startup, the last thing you want it to have your partner(s) being your clone – you want people with skills that supplement your own.

So, less dictating, more learning from others. :)

In English we’re doing a novel called The Cinnamon Tree, which is set in Africa. Before we began the class talked about polygamy; and we decided that there was an unfair Western bias toward our way being better.

‘An unfair bias that our way is better.’

Sound familiar?

Am I legitimizing or validating the Irish Twitter Mafia’s nonexistent argument by defending it? I don’t think so.