Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Take Your Cross, Follow Me.. On Twitter!

After reading my last post on writing bestsellers, one blogger friend suggested writing about Tweet craze... and follows this one..

"This post is dedicated to all the leaders dethroned in Egypt and Tunisia, thanks (partly) to twitter campaigning and to one leader from India who ranted on twitter forgetting his position and got kicked out sometime back." 
Jesus had just 12 followers... whereas I have 1.2 million of them...- Charlie Sheen
Charlie Sheen holds the Guinness world record for reaching 1 million followers in record time... Charlie Sheen! Of all people.... Where the world is heading?  Sheen, who is considered the bad boy of Hollywood, who went on from acting in classics like Apocalypse Now and Platoon to B graders like Terminal Velocity to C graders like Hot Shots and Scary movie 4, (not even the first part, mind it!) entered televised serials and managed to get kicked out of even there, has more than a million followers. Not only that, he gets paid for tweeting.. and his followers earns him money reading his product endorsements... (These days I believe about apocalypse in 2012.) 

Followers used to be disciples who closely observe a teacher, living with him, learning from him, imbibing his philosophy into their life and using their life to spread his message. Like Vivekananda, 12 disciples of Jesus, (ottukodutha Yudasum, thallipparanja Pathrosum adakkam) and Asoka, they are special, dedicated individuals, hell bent on a cause. But in Tweet-world, (most of the) followers are peeping toms, getting Voyeuristic pleasure in observing the private life of celebrities and ogling. And tweet wisdom, as I had mentioned in an earlier post, is like a droplet on the leaves of an early morning... dies when sun shows up. Forgettable...

The only good thing about tweets is that fame seeking celebrities can use it as a platform to stay in limelight. When you don't have work to show tweet something outrageous. And it is splashed all over the next day. This  has made many a  gossip mongering journos virtually jobless. Previously stars did not have a platform to tell their part of the story. There was every possibility of whatever they say being convoluted to suit the requirement of press. Twitter is a swift blow for them.   

These days another bad trend is catching up- of Trending topics. Many people think trending topics are the pulse of thought of people all over the world. They makes their marketing strategies based on them, makes news stories out of them only to be fooled when the interest fades and they fall into oblivion. Last few days the leading trending topic is a 13 year old singer, Rebecca Black, who shot to some fame after posting songs on Youtube. then the parents planned to cut a video of the singing child and it backfired. The song was so bad and idiotic that tweets has not stopped flowing from all over the world condemning the poor child. Some even mentions killing her... Gross...

5 comments:

  1. A friend of mine keeps coaxing me time and again to join twitter. She often shares tweets and other stuffs and says "Look what you are missing"

    But somehow tweeter is not for me. Holy mackerel!! reading your post makes my stand further strong and thank heavens I am not on twitter.

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  2. You are on Twitter! Its not that bad. It helps to keep up with the news around the world. I think its cool to be on Twitter. Lot of info sharing goes on there. I agree on the STAR following and trending though. Though I have been a member for a while now, I have only started using it recently. Its quite a powerful tool. If used well! :D

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  3. Twitter is more about instant gratification....but it landed Tharoor and Modi in trouble..I think it is a fad and will give way to something new. Also there is more to life than technology..
    interesting read.

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  4. I saw that album of Rebecca Black, (Friday)..It has been identified by many as worst song ever..though the lyrics seem stupid, I found her as a stunning girl..

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  5. Micro blogging is really micro! It does not leave space even for a minuscule piece of your heart, mind or soul. Well written.

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