Why Do You Tweet?

It took me a while to embrace social media. I was a late social networker.

I tried Myspace when it first started, got tired of Tom and moved on over to Facebook, discovered Twitter, YouTube, Google Plus, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest and now I’m addicted.

Social networking has become more than a hobby. It’s a daily ritual.

But why do I tweet?

Why do you friend, follow post and pin? Why do you take out your smartphone in a restaurant, and insist on taking pictures of your food in a restaurant, and uploading those images to Instagram before enjoying the taste?

Since social networking began, we’ve been told how it’s all about creating your own personal brand – essentially about making you look good, in a consistent and continuous way online.

You are your own product – just virtually represented.

But many old school social media junkies, or even just ‘newbies’ new to the online world of social networking, don’t have a personal brand, they just post what they are doing, what they are thinking, or what they are experiencing.

And isn’t that what social networking really was about?

Sharing your life experiences in an online virtual social realm, with others doing the same, so you could learn, develop and grow your friends?

Wasn’t the whole point of Facebook to reconnect with family, friends and colleagues that you originally lost touch with?

Twitter’s original homepage encouraged people to tweet “what you are doing right now.”

The essence behind YouTube was the ability to record video of what you were doing, and share it with the world.

Then the friending addiction kicked in, and many of us – myself included – became more interested in growing our friends, fans, and followers.

There may be strength in numbers, and it certainly is impressive to have a million friends following you on Google Plus.

But how many of those people do you actually have real conversations with, and really enjoy getting to know?

How many of those people do you actually care about?

The real test of friendship, is asking yourself if you care about someone.

Social networking has come a long way, but perhaps it has fallen off the rails, as we race to have more friends, fans, followers, circles, subscribers and others we really don’t care about.

Perhaps it’s time to rethink being social?

Why do you tweet?