:: Twitter : Shine With A Snippet

Grace!

I was on the tram today listening to a Podcast of BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.  I am totes highbrow, I know. Check me out.  There I was with my hat tugged firmly over unbrushed hair, jeans with the broken zipper over scuffed up Swedish Hasbeens, all topped off with a camel coloured slightly pilled up jumper, and I was nodding.  Did you see me?  Was I on your tram?   Did you see my messy fashionability and my noddy head?  Perhaps you thought I had tumbled out of an institution for the terminally dishevelled.  Well I had not.

I had actually tumbled out of my shop, headed for the big commute to school and back (2 trams, 2 trains and a walk).  I was armed with lots of new podcasts and I was determined to find out stuff.  That is what podcasts are for.  They are for tuning in to good stuff while you are stuck on a drippy tram with lots of interesting people you are yet to know.  Podcasts (according to me) are for lifting spirits, provoking thoughts and finding stuff out.  Sometimes they might even make you nod, like me.

It was in this noddy, trammy state that I was listening and thinking 'YES! You are right, Grace!  You are making so much sense, Grace!' 'Holy Cow, Grace, you are my Homegirl!' Don't you sometimes have those moments where you hear someone and you think 'YOU ARE MY PEOPLE!!'?  Well this was one of those moments. My people was Grace.  If you listen to this podcast, you might make Grace your people too, (but maybe you won't, so let me give you a bit of a quick run down.)

As well as being about cooking a carrot cake, this podcast was focussed on Twitter and how ACE it is.  I KNOW!  It was not scoffing about how stupid Twitter was. Nope. It was singing its praises. Panelist Grace Dent was sharing some of her observations about Twitter (including the fact that she is quite obsessed with it).

Here are a few of the Grace things I thought were great ::

1. If you have more than 3000 followers, suddenly you feel very important and feel like you are the head of a hillside tribe all your own. Great.
2. When you get on Twitter in the beginning, you really do not know what it is for.  You do not know what to do with it. Often you leave it alone and go off for a bit of a sulk.  It's only once you gather a few followers and score a few replies, that it all begins to make sense and then it is retweets ahoy! Great.
3.  Twitter has become the domain of clever, interesting, witty ladies who do not need to look like models or TV stars or Footballer's Wives to be admired. Great!

See that number 3?  I like that BEST of all.  Do you think that it's true?  I DO!  Words RULE on Twitter.  Of course people like Kim Kardashian and Katy Perry will still have a jillion billion followers hanging on their every LOL. I know that.  But the thing is, the people who really shine on Le Twit are those who can form concise, quick, well informed tweets and bang them out with great frequency.  If you are funny or clever, you will be noticed, it's as simple as that.  You do not need to do your hair.  You do not need to lose 5 kilos.  You do not need to wax your netherbits.  Nope.  You can be your own birdsnesty, plump, hairy self and still be loved for it on Twitter.

I am not, of course, saying that all the very best people on Twitter are unstylish or smelly.  Not at all. Some of my very favourite people on Twitter are not only funny and clever, but annoyingly attractive too.  What I am noticing, though,  is that nothing about Twitter interestingness  relates to your outside package. It's all about the things you think and say, and even if you ARE unstylish and smelly, we will peg our noses and marvel at your eccentricity, if you give good Tweet!

Don't you just LOVE that?!  I love that.  It's so democratic. It's so fair. It's so right. It's so how REAL LIFE should be.  Twitter and even apps like Instagram give opportunities to 'shine with a snippet', in ways that mainstream media never will.   These opportunities are based on substance, talent and sincerity.  Spin just does not cut it.

What are your thoughts? Is Grace your homegirl? Are you birdsnesty?  Or are your annoyingly attractive?

xx Pip

PS :: Grace's book is called How To Leave Twitter :: Here is an interview with her...