Another week of playing around on Twitter, and I think I’ve learned a little more. Firstly, I didn’t know until a few days ago that there were ‘lists’. These are groups of users curated by whomever created the list. I won’t go into the minutiae, but as an example, I was added to a someone’s list titled, ‘Bookish People’. I’ve been looking for a way to describe myself, so it’s a good thing that I’m now on this list.

After getting various messages promising to increase my followers into the thousands for a one time low, low payment, I decided to do some research on the claim. Turns out that you can in fact buy numerous followers. Good to know. The reality of the matter, however, is that these followers are mostly useless twitter users with little to no involvement, so the number is just a number and not a true reflection by any means. Some bloggers have even gone so far as to try out these services – none had many nice things to say. Also good to know. I won’t be purchasing a slew of Chinese followers any time soon.

Further, I’m finding that most of the comments that scroll across my feed are unbelievably useless and just plain boring. Perhaps in an attempt to post something, people I seem to have followed for one reason or another don’t put much thought into what they say. (One woman offers absolutely no thought and rants insistently about God. She has since been unfollowed and I’ve even now tried the ‘block’ function for the first time. No time for lunatics, even virtual ones.)

I’ve tried a few hash tag trends, and even a few @ posts, with varying degrees of success. I made a few attempts at #WorstWesterns. One was ‘Have Gum Will Travel’. Ya know, I’m trying to be a good sport.

What is becoming abundantly clear – something that I feared might – is that Twitter is  just so filled with useless noise. I suppose that’s what you get when you give everyone and anyone a voice – they go ahead and use it. The most irritating so far are those that post the same thing over and over in an attempt to solicit.  ‘Like my facebook page’, or ‘download my ebook’ seem to be popular mantras. I don’t think Twitter is meant to be used a sales tool, though. Although, some that do use it for that purpose seem to have followers in the thousands… perhaps tools themselves.

There have been a few nice posts, some interesting thoughts, and I did in fact even learn about the discovery of the Higgs-Boson on Twitter, so it hasn’t all been for not. I’m certainly not yet at the point of quitting the service and I’m still interested in discovering what kind of power it truly does have. If only the overwhelming moronity would keep it to a duller hum…

Oh, and whatever TrueTwit Validation Service is, no one gives a shit that you use it, so turn off the auto-DM that let’s your new followers know. True Twits indeed. Now keep it to yourself.

The numbers: (about 10-15 minutes on twitter a day)

After Week 1:

– 159 followers.

– 115 Tweets.

– Following 447  (only 1 celebrity).

After Week 2:

– 266 followers.

– 182 Tweets.

– Following 598 (still only 1 celebrity).

I looked up Emma Stone, because for some reason I may be in love with her, but she doesn’t really use Twitter – which is good because now I won’t have to be that idiot that tries to talk to someone they saw on Letterman.

Pintrest update: Fuck Pintrest.