How to crack the Twitter Code

So I am doing a bit of a research experiment --- via a usability test and contextual interview (I love my Marketer speak) --- via the human male who lives in my apartment. My boyfriend has decided to begin tweeting. The infamous Twitter now has a permanent presence in my home. We were sitting on the couch one Tuesday night (tonight) enjoying some rum and pink lemonade, trying to forget the troubles of the day, when the subject of his experience on Twitter came up. Here is what we discussed: 


Me: When did you first start tweeting? 
Boyfriend (BF): About a week ago, but I've been reading tweets for about two months now. 


Me: So do you consider yourself a conversationalist or a spectator? 
BF: I am definitely more of a spectator, I am still trying to get used to the rules. But in the future I plan to be more of a conversationalist. Also my workstation at my job blocks Twitter so it makes it difficult to get used to doing it all the time.  


(So at this point he knows I am interviewing him for my blog, so now he is on a "real" interview --- bore bore / snore snore!)


Me: So, this is my blog, you need to keep it real. What are you getting out of this Twitter experience? Why tweet in the first place? I am going to stop writing and just listen for a while, what's this whole twitter thing about anyway? 
BF: As you know, I am getting ready to start business school in the fall. I am over my job and so I sit at work all day and read interesting articles and commentary across different internet sites. While this may not be ideal for my current employer, it's ideal for me as I prepare for my post-MBA career. So fuck it, it's interesting. If I weren't blocked at work, I'd use twitter to share these interesting finds with the world, but for no other reason than I find it interesting. 


Me: So, it's kind of a way for people to get to know you via your interests? 
BF: Yea


Me: But, what about the fact that many of your followers are strangers? 
BF: I think that's even better! The fact that they are strangers means they may be more willing to be honest because they aren't my friends, so they have no need to be nice. And hey, you never know, we may become friends later. 


Me: (Giving the side eye to the "friends later" comment...)
BF: (Tries to clear it up by adding an additional caveat) Friend meaning someone I continue to converse with via Twitter. 
Me: "Uh-huh"

Me: What about the BS you tell me you've read on Twitter, some of which from actual friends... what do you think about that? The fact is, it's not all about people sharing interesting articles they came across during the 8 hours they spend at their crappy job. Some people tweet ignorance and you are friends with them. 
BF: You have to define what you are using Twitter for, and get out of it what you want to get out of it. You can get cluttered with crap from people, but the great thing about Twitter is you can just un-follow someone with a click of a button (I have already decided not to follow some of your friends--your friends being the people you referenced as tweeting ignorance) 


Me: Fair enough, I acknowledge it was likely some of my friends with the WTF tweets, so I will just leave that hot potato where it lands... 


I guess overall folks, the bottom line is times are a'changing and people can share / will share every thought, perspective, fleeting emotion they can possibly muster up on a social media platform (hey, I blog, and what is a blog but a long a-- tweet??). The moral of the story is you have to find a place for it in your life and be comfortable with that. You don't have to be a tweeter, a blogger, a Facebooker, pick from the noise what sounds like a sweet melody and make it work for you. 


I will continue to keep you posted on my BF's Twitter explorations, at least the parts where he isn't talking about his boring posts about interesting articles, we will focus on the more juicy exploits on this blog!. 


#Notsureiftwitterandboyfriendsmix 


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