Aug 15, 2009

Twealousy

I was complaining to a friend of mine recently that due to falling visitor stats and fewer comments, I had reached the miserable conclusion that nobody reads my blog anymore.* My friend - who's quite the mad keen "tweeter" (not to mention digital radio enthusiast) - said "Ah, well! It's all about micro-blogging these days - it's all about Twitter!"

Now I've been on Twitter since November 2008. Like most regular users, I adore many aspects of it: I find the brevity of messages fun and challenging; I really dig the news gathering/distribution potential; and it's always enjoyable interacting with people.

But do you know what? I actually think it may be bad for me.

Recently, I've noticed I've been comparing my "tweets" to everybody else's. For someone whose sense of self-esteem resembles a badly-whisked souffle (capable of rising but prone to sudden and catastrophic collapse) - this has me a tad worried.

See, I've always been slightly obsessed with "popularity" and "coolness". I have never really been either of those things, despite my best efforts (hello, designated driver). It's one of those paradoxes of life - the more I CARE about being "popular" or "cool" - the more resolutely I fail at it.

Of course, on Twitter, everybody seems cooler than me.

They're listening to the latest music I have no idea about, they're going to high-falutin' restaurants and galleries, trendy nightspots and uber-urban-chic stores, they're getting about with their WiFis and their iPhones and their on-the-move Twit-Piccing, they know the cool websites and memes long before I've even figured out what a RickRoll actually is.

They're the Twitterati, and they seem to be more interesting, exciting and awesome than me in every way.

It's "Twealousy", sure. "Twenvy", if you will. Even, on some days, full-blown "Twanxiety".

Problem is, stressing about it is POINTLESS. I can't COPY these people, I can't even imitate them. I can't make people like me, or think I'm cool. I'm not Ashton Kutcher; I can't demand people follow me so I can feel popular. That way lies madness (all right, more madness).

I'd take a break from Twitter, but as I said earlier, there are facets of it I really enjoy, and it's a handy tool for work and promotion, if nothing else. So what to do, internet? What to do? 

*If you are, in fact, reading this blog - thank you!

25 comments:

  1. I am not an all things bloggy hiatus and that includes twitter. Can't stop reading everyone's twitter updates and blog posts though (never miss an exciting episode of Girl Clumsy).

    What to do? Me, I just know deep down in my core that I totally rock and just because someone else seems to be doing exciting things doesn't make me rock any less. Even people that run succesful theatre productions and travel to exciting foreign countries take nothing away for the (sometimes boring) greatness that is me.

    So in-conclusion (I felt I needed a conclusion), do your own thing and do it with confidence and you will always be cool!

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  2. That should be "on" and not "not".

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  3. You must focus on the global picture. For every 'Hanging with Tim Freedman at the Press Club' is another 'Ran out of Bread. Having Tuna salad instead'. Checks and Balances.

    (As an aside, I scoured through your twitter feed to find a nice mundane tweet on your behalf to use as the boring illustration, just to really put the boot in, but couldn't find one tweet you'd done boring enough to work. Used one of Internet Rock Star Jonathan Coulton instead.)

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  4. I read all your posts and watched all the vids.. i am simply too starstruck to say much.

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  5. But you're a journalist, actress, director, blogger and you made a video of yourself On a Boat. I personally think that makes you pretty cool, not being a dirty Gen Y yuppie.

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  6. what a duffer, We read every word you write, every day I log on to see whats doing with Nat. If I am home late from work I ask the ancient man if he has checked yet, so keep on keeping on - I know at least 4 people who say "have you read Nat yet? not one of them has made a comment on the site, we are the silent majority. from young and lovely mater..

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  7. Be yourself...everyone is cool in their own special way...!

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  8. Doofus....anyone? ;)

    There's a reliable theory that for every person who makes a comment on any topic in any medium there are there are seven others who don't.

    I visit here regular like. You do ok imho. Don't freaking change anything.

    Another, usually silent, reader.

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  9. I found this post to be a really interesting look at Twitter:
    http://theferrett.livejournal.com/1312967.html

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  10. I think you're really awesome, Nat. I am guilty of falling behind on reading blogs and also guilty of not updating my own...I think there is an ebb and flow to things and soon people will tire of Twitter and go back to their longer blog posts.

    :D

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  11. Girl Clumsy


    forget everything else you may have heard

    You ROCK.


    Please keep posting.

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  12. I read everything you write. I watch every vid. I roll my eyes at every Tweet. I joke.

    Lack of comments doesn't necessarily mean lack of readers. I didn't reply to your txts from court cause they came up as txts, and not like mobile twitter.

    But yeah, me rambling about goats, video games, and debating if Megan Fox is hotter than Miranda Kerr on Twitter is SO MUCH more exciting than travelling SE Asia. *rolls eyes*

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  13. Nat, I look at the quality of people who read your blog you're doing well even with me pulling the average down.

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  14. Hey - re your miserable conclusion... When I fire up my rss reader, GC is one of only a handful of blogs that I hope has a new entry waiting for me. Don't change a thing!

    Peter C/F Hayward's link is a perfect explanation. GC's blog is genuinely interesting; GC's tweets are contextually interesting. They're not mutually exclusive, they combine. I am secretly thrilled when there's a GC blog post that echoes a tweet I read a few days prior.

    I'm sad to say I'm in the silent majority, and I should leave more comments - I know at my blog I use comments as a measure of how successful a post was at reaching people. They're meaningful in a motivating-you-to-keep-going sort of way. Doesn't matter if it's chiming in with more info, or disagreeing, or just saying "Yeah!!"

    Hold your course. There are plenty of things in the world that need changing, but this blog isn't one of them.

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  15. I don't do twitter because I'm just not that cool... if you want to see dull and boring, you can come round to my house... I'm asleep by 8:30pm most nights, and have spent my day celebrating poos and random syllables strung together in a way that sounds remotely meaningful... you travel the world and see amazing things, write with style and flair and I read as often as I can, which is every second day if not every day. Your blog is the oly blog I read that I can consistently expect to see something new. :)

    You're a star Nat, you just have to trust it.

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  16. I've never seen Twitter and blogs as mutually exclusive, and I can't really figure out why some people do (or are). You can't get a story across in 140 chars. Personally I think the steam's going out of the Twitter fad too to a certain degree, people are pulling back from their initial level of involvement - I know I'm not on it 24/7 any more and several peeps such as Naut have opted out entirely. But the wish to tell stories is still there so I'm still blogging, and I'm thankful to all those who turn up and read them, or keep up the maintenance on their own blogs.

    Anyway, putting that aside, I'd like to speak to the most pressing agenda item here today. Megan Fox SO isn't hotter than Miranda Kerr. Thank you.

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  17. Carn Clumsikins, thou art the centre of my multiverse..x Bedes xx

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  18. Do you really want to be like the wally's who, apparently, are so "famous" that the Brisbane Times has to put their 140 key stroke maunderings on page three every day? Is it important to know that Kevin Rudd has had eggs for breakfast or that "someone" is having a latte somewhere? Who cares ? Twitter leaves me cold

    I prefer to read your blogs.They are fun, entertaining and generally informative keep them coming

    Regards
    The Ancient Man

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  19. Twitter tiiiiimee

    Maybe you should think about doing what Michael Jackson did?

    http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=122255

    Twitter is shit. It's Facebook's disabled cousin. Like, not all there, upstairs-wise. I got annoyed with other people's mundane self-important tweets, so I deleted mine. Ashton Kutcher can suck my balls.

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  20. Delte your account. You'll feel better for it.

    Death to twitter.

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  21. I don't have time for Twitter. I have a life - a complicated one with three kids, a role as a martial arts instructor, responsibility for teaching at least one of my kids, fifty acres of property, a water reticulation system, the task of cook and shopper and maintenance guy, the ongoing mission of a writer, student of Iaido...

    ... point is, none of those things is all that interesting in 140 character bursts. Oh, sure - occasionally. I might be down running the pump, and maybe I'll catch sight of a platypus. But I can't use the mobile phone down there anyhow, and really, which is better: a 140 character 'jst saw platypus in our pond totally cool' or a thoughtful blog post and photograph?

    So: 1) I don't have time to Twitter. 2) Most of what I do isn't worth the effort anyhow, at least to others. 3) If I'm spending my time monitoring someone else's life, I'm not using that time on my own life. 4)I've got a blog, and I can actually be thoughtful there. 5) And the blog is really a journal that I use to remind me to write something down for my kids.

    Hell with Twitter.

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  22. My goodness. Thank you all for your kind, wonderful and insightful comments.

    This here blog is my favourite place to be on the internet. Always has been, always will be. I began in in August 2004 - so it's five years old this month. That's long before I joined Facebook, or Twitter. In fact I joined those services really just to try to get more people to the blog. (I have this crazy idea that one day I might be able to make a living through writing. Not counting all that other journo stuff, obviously.)

    It just seems like the internet sometimes spins away from the blog - as I said in the post, I do really like many aspects of Web 2.0, but there are others that - for whatever stupid, infantile reason - seem to make me feel inadequate.

    (Maybe I need more baking soda for that souffle self-esteem, Mr Flinthart!)

    I would like to actually do a bit of a layout change here at Girl Clumsy - certainly I should put up a few fresh photos at the very least - but I like the idea of changing to something more magazine-like, so I could have featured posts etc etc.

    In the meantime - you are all very, very cool & warm people. Way to go making me JEALOUS. ;)

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  23. I PROMISE I have been more boring than you for the last five weeks. I have had the flu and been doing nothing but sleeping, working and painting. Know that for at least the last five weeks, you have been cooler than someone.

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  24. Stop kicking your self women its great to read someone with a waird & wonderfull sence of houmer. Im an avid reader & listner of the dulset tones of the girl clumsey. Stick it to them baby keep up the twittering.

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