Sometimes I think Twitter is the greatest collector’s forum. As people tweet their favorite stars and hope to be noticed with a reply, a RT (re-tweet), being “favorited”, or the supposed ultimate a “follow”…the acknowledgement of what you said to an idol is surprisingly gratifying.
A little background for those not familiar with Twitter; I joined in May 2012, and there was definitely a learning curve for this “old dog.” The basic premise was easy enough to grasp… tweet = a 140 characters of whatever you want to say. When you added @ and someone’s handle you are directly tweeting to them (and any other person that wanted to look at it can read it as well). Then came the nuances that I am still trying to figure out. RT’ing is IMO (in my opinion) validating what the first person has already said, in essence, agreeing with them. Favorite’ing is obviously just that, marking something that you like and can refer back to at a later time. You follow the people that you want to hear about and you gain followers who similarly, want to hear what you have to say.
That all being said…I follow a lot of celebrities. I enjoy seeing the BTS (behind the scenes) pictures from the set and reading what they are doing in La-la land. I am, admittedly a (too a certain degree)
Getting a reply from a celebrity is really fun, I would say even addictive. And I completely understand the desire to be acknowledged by your idol, but not to the extent that some of these people go to. Some of the most disturbing attempts at getting noticed are those that use bad behavior or language…being nasty is like fly paper to some and they get the attention which then breeds more insults. Then there are the absolute “fan-girls” that just completely go off the map with “I love you” & “You’re so pretty” when the celeb simply tweeted “Look at this picture of a cashew nut.” (true story) I ask valid questions that I hope to get answers about; I send out politically & socially charged messages hoping to be RT’ed so that the message reaches a greater number of followers, AND… I have asked the designer of an outfit or jewelry…which I often then purchase 🙂 Some of my tweets are frivolous, but that’s what I use Twitter for -entertainment.
I have a life, a great life, but it is fun to tweet in this virtual reality that Twitter allows you to be part of something bigger…but it’s not reality, its fantasy. And it is the fans that can’t disassociate the actors from their characters that then tweet absurdities. One of my favorite writers has on her Twitter bio “Don’t tweet me your craziness,” and it’s true. The fandom becomes it’s own entity at times and can destroy everything in it’s path. I’ve seen fighting on Twitter over which ‘ship people like better on a show, or this celeb tweets this person more than that one, or they attack like wild animals if anyone dares to say something unflattering about their star. Seriously?
The reality is that when your tweeting celebrities, have fun…but don’t take it too seriously, because after all – they don’t.
One Mom's Twitter Experience, and other life awakenings 