My Solemn Twitter Promise
If you’re reading this, chances are, you participate in social media. For me, it started back in the mid2000s with MySpace. Then came Facebook. Then Twitter, Then linkedin and google plus, though I’m not real active on the latter two.
When I first got on Twitter, it seemed like everyone was posting pics of their food. Instagram made this easy. I totally get posting a pic of the world’s largest burger BEFORE it’s eaten. I totally get that a portion of food’s allure is asthetics. No where is this more apparent than with sushi and sweets. Yet, when I first got on Twitter, it seemed like everyone I followed was talking about their food or taking pictures of it. Obviously, the pics don’t make any diff to me. But I was kinda bewildered by how many people thought others wanted to read about what they were eating. I mean, it’s food. We eat it several times a day. What’s the big whoop?
So, I guess I was poking fun of these folks when I advertised my Twitter feed to my friends on other social media sites. Typically, I’d say something like this:
“Follow me on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/MarcusEngel. I promise not to tweet what I’m eating!”
And, to the best of my knowledge, in the few years I’ve had Twitter, it’s been rare that I’ve broken that promise. Does that make me special? That I’m such a hipster? Nah. It just requires me to be more creative…and that’s a challenge that does me good.
A lot of time I’ll hear people critique Twitter and Facebook by saying something like, “Why do I care what you’re eating? Or why do I care what kind of coffee you got?” or “Why do you have to post every detail of your life?” Heard some of these complaints? Betcha have!
A tweep who is quite active made a statement the other day I thought profound. “So what if you’re tweeting your breakfast? So what if you’re tweeting pics of your kids? It’s not anyone’s place to say that’s wrong. It’s part of being human and being in relationship with one another.”
Now, it took like three tweets to say this, but my tweep is right. We all share this planet together. We’ve all gotta learn to live in relationship with one another if we want the most fulfilled life possible. Twitter and Facebook are just an extention of our humanity. What’s wrong with being human?
There is nothing wrong with it. And, if you’ve gotta find fault with someone for their amount of Twitter or Facebook posts, you have every ability to stop reading them. Simple as that. I love being in relationship with others, I love Twitter…but still, don’t expect to hear about my food.
