Message to twelebrities.

Dear Famous celebrity twitterer.

I kind of get the hang of twitter by now. My job (and hobby and lifetime preoccupation) has taught me to look for new concepts, and try to capture its essence. I myself am small twitter-fish, though. Having about 300 or so followers.

With a bit of nostalgia I look back at the beginning of your and mine twitter career, some 190 followingers ago, when the novelty and mystery made us actually engage in twitter-conversations. I even believe John Cleese was or maybe still is following me as well.

Dear Twelebrity, don't get me wrong. I do am interested in your daily whereabouts, like following Demi Moore to a Berlin trip, or see her flirting with her husband via twitter, it's sweet. And this is really not meant ironically. I really think it's interesting to read about your life and your thoughts.

But that's the problem. Twitter gives me more then I can handle.
Before Twitter, I knew you existed, could admire your work (or not), and you were text blurbs - or preferably blurry pictures of you doing something nasty - in the global popular press. So we learned about your pregnancies, your Hollywood gossip, your addictions, your love lives and your court orders. Your illegal sex-video, though, I have never seen.

With Twitter, it's worse. The damn Twitter-thing gives me the impression that I can be closer to you. Read about you, directly from you, and - worse - interact with you. I have the impression that you would actually engage in a conversation.
Now, without any boasting to be done, I really believe that for some of you 'famous' people, I think my life and experience could actually be as good as an inspiration as vice versa. I truly believe that we should have a coffee, discuss life, creativity and more. I truly believe with some of you, I could get along.

Yet I can't get to you. The twavalanche keeps on growing, and makes me one of your zillion followers. 'Followers' meaning that I'm behind you, where as I believe any decent conversation is happening with someone next to you.

Of course I can retweet. Of course I can reply, as I see others do. I even see you react and reply back from time to time. But it's a lottery thing. It will probably make the retweeters their day, since you, their hero, has stepped down from your Hollywood cloud and has shown a beginning of human interaction. They will probably save your retweet on a usb stick and cherish it like a piece of a Saint's real bone relic from a bygone era.

I don't want to play the lottery. Or worse, lose myself in a Web2.0 equivalent of a religion. I've rejected other religions a long time ago, and at least he could walk on water.

So we have to stop meeting like this. And that's why I will unfollow you. You will not notice this, it won't hurt a bit. And I will at least have not the impression to be close to you. Unless, of course, you react. Retweet, engage. Then we can discuss. You can start following me on my twitter account.

http://www.twitter.com/JanVanMol