Twitterati....

Twitter.

Why I love Twitter.

@orangy68

The time. April, 2009. Life was pretty much in the pits and getting worse by the minute.

THEN ONE DAY, I thought... Facebook and Twitter need to be added to my social networking in cyberland........

WHY?

Why did I suddenly jump in.... Simple. These were the Buzz things at the time. Obviously I had heard of both Twitter and Facebook.

Facebook? well, knowing what I know now about Facebook, I wish I had joined when it first came out. It seems that every man and his dog are on there....

And so to TWITTER....

"There is a more than very good chance that you have cancer Robin....."

April. 2009. I was told this and had numerous tests, biopsies and x-rays.....

I pretty much expected to die. I am not scared to die. I can look my maker in the eye and say "Give me my keys to those Pearly Gates please....."

I was scared that I had not achieved anything of great note in my life, on a personal or professional level since my early twenties. I felt as though I would be buried in a paupers grave, unmarked, untended and unloved....

So what to do? I wanted to shout from the tops of all the trees...

"Thankyou for never taking the time to get to know me."

Especially to my closest -(alleged)- family. I have many, many personal issues with my family. I am close to my family in Skegness, luckily. And I have a smattering of family around the world too. It is not just me out of my 2 sisters and 2 brothers who have 'serious' issues with the way we were dragged up. Not dragged up, but some very bizarre methodology was used. I digress. I often do...

"I needed a new 'family' to belong to..."

And now eight or nine months later, I really do feel a part of a HUGE GLOBAL FAMILY.

In desperation I signed up for Twitter. I could find the exact date, time, weather and probably tell you what I was wearing too-(usually trackie bottoms, Hoodie and Bandanna)

So I entered this amazing place that is TWITTER. I have never looked back since. I have had more time out of Twitter than in, since I joined, because of the mentioned illness scare and ongoing dietary problems. I know now that I can't actually live without knowing what 'Percy' from Nooo Yawk, or 'Ingrid' from Swedeland is doing, every minute of the day!!!!

Now like every other Twitter Addict-

You have to start somewhere....

(Believe me Twitter is more addictive than Cherry pie)

I didn't have a clue. What do I have to say? And why would anyone want to read? Is this all it is? Countless other questions and a certain trepidation was rife.

My first tweet, went along the lines of Hello I am Robin. Just found this 'new' place. Just thought I would try it out. What do I do?

And within a matter of seconds, 'James' came from out of nowhere. James is the real name. But I won't embarrass him by adding his @ or Username. And, should he read this... He will know who he is!!

American. And so helpful. I had a follower.

It might be handy to just add here that I 'followed' or added myself to about 200 celebrities and 'major' media 'outlets' and tweeters... Radio stations and the BBC etc, before doing anything else. It would be a bit boring having nothing to read.

Enter the 'public' Timeline.

On a funny, but not funny note. I tried posting Jonathon Ross... @Wossy a link to a quite funny jokey site. And not having a clue how to do it, or most importantly forgetting to CHECK THE LINK first. (Do you check your links work first?? PLEASE do, because there is nothing worse than getting a 'dead' link....)- I noticed that it didn't work the link. So I tried to send it to @Wossy again. Anyway within a matter of minutes, @Wossy answered me back.....

"@orangy68 PLEASE STOP."

So. I thought what a cheeky stuck up bastard-(He isn't by the way!)- But it certainly didn't help matters when I sent him a dead link up a second time I suppose!!

I sat on the public timeline. Just tweeting incessantly at tweeters who were posting things of interest to me. And I started to click on the Links and the music, photos and other links of brilliance that were endless!

I hammered the tweeting and found that 99% of people answered you back from the time lines and if they answered I followed. I found that this was the best way to go around things. I wasn't concerned about amassing huge numbers of friends, followers or sycophants. Nor was I too bothered about tweeting anyone other than the so called 'Celebrities.'

Anyway. As I sit here now. I am so glad I joined Twitter. I have actually made several hundred lifelong friends, and although I haven't and probably never meet 99.99% of these people, I feel a certain brotherly kinship and sisters too! In fact I have two or three people up on Twitter who have adopted me as their brother! And I also have them as Sisters too. You probably think this is ridiculous. But nobody sees what goes on in the Direct Messaging and via 'other' means of communication.

A DM is also like a first date.... In a strange way!! (just a random stoopid thought:))

So the cancer turned out to be not cancer -(I had another major scare several years ago for cancer too!)- but entirely because of the self neglect due to anorexia. (Diagnosed some 20 years ago.)

I was hooked on TWITTER within hours. I honestly don't think I went to bed for a week... And even I thought a few of my tweets were quite amusing...

The foreign peoples of Twitter -(WHO I LOVE!)- Are STREETS ahead of us Brits with regards to Twitter. Especially in America. Providing endless sights of photography, art, blogs, recipes, the links and amounts of them were amazing. And talk about trying to read every single post or 'Tweet' which I attempted. I remember a few hours into my first tweeting session... My computer crashed really badly, Every link opened a new window on my browser and they don't shut themselves down. I ended up closing about 6 million open browser link pages which had caused my ccomputer to #FAIL!!

A little down the road now. I am back to loving the whole Twitter ethos.

Twitter is Facebook on steroids

I said that ages ages ago. Too lengthy to explain here.

And to finish. The real reason I joined Twitter?

"I wanted there to be a small 'piece' of me left behind, after I had attended my death."

I actually see in the future, people looking back at Tweets. If that be someone from your extended family, say 200 years in the future... Well. I think it is quite amazing. To be able to guage a person from their tweets.

"You are what you tweet."

I actually really do owe my life, and it's continuation to this day, to several, genuinely concerned friends who I have swapped many mails and conversations with. So Twitter really has been a lifesaver for me.

And to the people who say Twitter is just Facebook. I just agree with the Philistines, they have not tried it. How can they judge it???

Twitterati we know that is so wrong.

To end now. I find that most of my fellow 'proletariat' tweeters are the only 'celebrities' that I tweet with now. In fact I have unfollowed many of these celebrities I initially followed. All they are interested in doing is self-aggrandizement and promotion of 'works' that are not even a millionth of a percent point anywhere near as good as the posts links and tweets from us mere mortals...

Do your bit. Try to get one over on these 'CELEBS.' Occasionally I try to....

Twitterati-

-I love you all. I really do-

A bit rushed at the end because I really could write so much about this subject.

So That's it.

<(ovo)> xx

Rob. 05.42am 4.01.10.

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