Image via http://www.ravigadu.com.
Yesterday, someone on Twitter posed a question: What makes you unfollow people?
So, I compiled the top 10 types of tweets and peeps that make me click “Unfollow.” And I follow less than 100 handles, so believe me, I’m fickle with the clicking.
The meaningless Follow Friday tweet. Occasionally, I send out an FF tweet on Fridays to recognize the people whose writing and photography I really like, or whose ideas or approach to their work are particularly intriguing and inspiring. I tend to limit these tweets to one or two people, so as not to blind my followers with this kind of nonsense:
FF @name1 @name2 @name3 @name4 @name5 @name6 @name7 @name8 @name9 @name10 @name11 @name12 @name13 @name14 @name15 @name16 @name17 @name18 @name19 @name20 @name21
If you engage in this meaninglessness and waste of space and I’m still following you, I must find your other tweets valuable enough to overlook these ones.
The tweet that’s hashtagged to death. I can tolerate when you tweet something to participate in one of the more clever hashtag or trending topics. (During one Giants game when Darren Ford showed off his crazy base stealing, #darrenfordissofast became a cool @SFGiants hashtag). That aside, I find hashtag overload harsh on my eyes. I try to overlook this practice if you’re on a press trip or at a conference and such additions are compulsory—or if your hashtag is simply one of wit and obscurity—but excessive hashtagging is pointless:
I’m at a #marketing, #advertising, and #PR conference! All about #blogging and #SEO! #insertconferencenamehere2011
The retweet that taints a tweet with “LOL.” If I start using “LOL” (or something similar, like “LMAO”) in my written and online correspondence, you will know that something is mentally wrong and you can go ahead and kill me. (Most of you already know this, as it’s in my will.)
Oftentimes, an original tweet reinforced with “LOL” isn’t even funny:
LOL! RT @Twittername: I just [insert something unfunny here]. Can’t believe it. LMAO!
The tweet lacking punctuation and grammar savvy. I proofread for a living. So its really important for you’re image, as well as my sanity, to know the difference between its versus it’s and your versus you’re. Your going to make me think your stupid otherwise, and your going to make me pull my hair out. I’m your elitist friend that may have defriended you on Facebook if your posts were always full of errors. I know we’re not writing school essays here, and perhaps I take punctuation too seriously (I must tell you I can absorb myself in the Chicago Manual forum in my spare time). But unless it’s intentional, I’d rather not see that sloppiness in my stream.
The succession of tweets that smell of bot. If you always use a share button when tweeting a link and rarely add your own words to your tweets, I can tell. And I get bored. If you send numerous tweets in less than a minute, and they’re all structured the same way, I notice. And I get bored. If your tweets are always the same character length, whether really short or really long, I smell a lack of variety. And I get bored.
A tweet is like a miniature English comp essay. A string of tweets is like an ongoing piece. Syntax and rhythm are still important.
The messy, cluttered tweet. Tweets can be ugly, you know. Like this one:
in AntarcticA ? have fun.. rT @name: RT @2ndname: PHOTO of a cool iceberg!! >> http://bit.ly/blahblah <-OMG,thats2cool #Photography #antarctica ##travel
*That* makes me cringe. If you can tell me the correct number of errors in that tweet, I’ll bake you a cake.
The uber-clichéd tweet. I do use clichés when the mood strikes (see?), yet some words and phrases irritate me more than others. If you use them for a reason (sarcasm or criticism, for example), that’s fine. But none of the words or phrases in these tweets, for instance, mean anything:
10 Things a Hipster Can Do in Montreal: http://bit.ly/blahblahblah
I’m staying in a cute boutique hotel! lockerz.com/s/0123456789
Ways To Go Off the Beaten Path in Spain: http://bit.ly/yadayadayada
Tweets that link to How-To and Top 10 posts are also on my shit list, so this post kills two birds with one stone (see again?).
Those who drown in self-deprecation. Yeah, yeah, I do it sometimes. But if you whine everyday, you make me wonder. And you make me want to slap you. Don’t lie: you’re better than you lead on and you know it. Stop complaining and go do something.
Those who are too-focused and niche-driven. Let’s use travel as an example. If you’re always travel-this-travel-that-travel-today-travel-tomorrow-travel-next-year, I get turned off. (I explained this in the spring, in my first post on virtual life.) This has little to do with you and more to do with my personal preference; the travel bloggers and writers I tend to follow are the ones who also reveal themselves in ways other than travel. I like people who go off on tangents; I like those who can be optimistic and professional one day but be ranty and emotional the next. Three-dimensional people with flaws and raw thoughts are more interesting to me.
Those who are too polite or perfect. To be honest, my favorite personas on Twitter are the ones who are the most offensive and irreverent (examples that immediately stick out are @Mike_FTW, @mat, and @TheBosha) but easily the most thought-provoking. I’m wary of individuals who are just too good. Why strive for virtual perfection? It acts as a glaze, coating the real person inside.
More posts on Twitter:
- Jarring & Juxtaposed: Digesting the Twitter Stream
- Notes on Social Media, Egypt, and My Pseudo Activism
More Posts on Virtual Life:
- Notes on Virtual Life, Part VI: Facebook Status Updates (And What I Could Have Said)
- Notes on Virtual Life, Part V: Proximity & Physical Space
- Notes on Virtual Life, Part IV: On Unplugging & Merging Virtual and Real
- Notes on Virtual Life, Part III: Nomadic Relationships
- Notes on Virtual Life, Part II: Facebook, Twitter & the Seeds of Compartmentalization
- Notes on Virtual Life, Part I: The Evolution of Friendship
What bothers me more than bulk #FF tweets is when people retweet those eyesores (or the daily ‘paper’ ones) simply because they appear in them.
Worse again is when there’s a whole series of these #FF blitzes. I used to follow someone who dropped more than 100 names this way in less than 10 minutes. *eye twitch*
Ah, yes — the retweets of those paper.li links (and things like it). And the series of #FF tweets of @names. Absolutely pointless and meaningless.
Thanks for stopping by, Stan!
The twenty name #FF is the worst. Especially if the twitterer only tweets that. Yes, easily grounds for unfollow.
But accurate punctuation can be a dark and arcane art. Are you really that hard on misplaced apostrophes? (the your/you’re thing is pretty inexcusable, even if I’m occasionally guilty of it too).
Are you really that hard on misplaced apostrophes?
Honestly, yes. I’m a proofreader by day, so I think I exercise this pickiness in whatever I do
Thanks for the comment — I agree those twenty-name #FFs are the worst!
Geez Cheri … you’re so critical! Are you trying to alienate would be twitter followers?
No, I’m not trying to alienate would-be followers (or blog readers). Just felt like it was time for a rant — hadn’t done so in a while
I know there are no established “rules” for Twitter and people can tweet how they want and use it how they please. Just wanted to share what I’ve observed and what I *don’t* think works.
I’m sure if others wrote their own lists, I’d be guilty of (what they consider to be) bad tweets, too!
You know from elsewhere my hatred of the Top 10 f***ery,. so no need to repeat here – but yes, I have unfollowed people because they tweeted something so trite it made my flesh crawl. This I have done, and will continue to do, sadly.
So….you think I should be more offensive?
CHERI. YOU…..*YOU SMELL OF POO*.
….
Oh god I hate myself now.
Did you just say I smell of poo?
[laughing]
You just failed at trying to be offensive.
At least you’re funny.
Haha, I’m having this conversation with my roommates and I’m getting all sorts of ways to laugh though cyberspace. Mixing it up to “Ahahah” (A in front) or “Bahaha” which kinda sounds like a goat or like a sudden burst of laughter or “ahawayshsahahahaa” to make it seem like you might be slightly going insane… from laughter? Perhaps.
That’s so funny you bring up “Bahahaha” (starting it with a B) and equating that to the sound of a goat. I hate that one, too!
But that reminds me — I’m ALL FOR the evil laugh: “Muahahaha.” Funny how the simple switch of letters changes the tone entirely, eh?
Re: your comment above this one, I hear you: it’s ultimately one of those silly personal things.
I like to use LOLOLOL!!! When I am truly laughing my ass off. I don’t make it habitual, so it never gets old, but I think it gets the point across better to my readers instead of “haha” or “I’m laughing”. I can dig it tho, it’s just one of those silly personal things.
I’m not a fan of LOL either, maybe because it always seems like a needless laugh track in a sitcom.
@Barry LOL is only a problem when people use it because they are uncomfortable or don’t know what else to say. It’s equivalent to typing ummm as you would say in a conversation.
Otherwise, I like it if used appropriately especially if someone sends a real one to me. =)
I guess I’m safe and your not going to unfollow me, and it makes me nervous because a lot of people have been being really hard on me lately, LOL!
I realize it was both overused and misused and probably had to go for that reason, but I miss the utility of LOL. When you’re talking with someone face-to-face there’s a big difference between a smile, no smile, and a laugh. LOL provided some of that communication in the online world. Hasn’t it been replaced by “HA”? I don’t see that as an improvement.
Indeed, utility. And it’s short and people innately get what’s behind it.
For me, I think there’s something visual about “LOL” that I just don’t like. I don’t like those three letters together for some reason, and that contributes to my hatred.
Thanks for the note, Barry!
With you 100% on all of these.
So glad!
Chicago huh? I’m in the process of learning APA. I miss the footnotes of my Sydney undergraduate essays. There is something so elegant and inefficient about footnotes.
PS if you have unfollowed/do unfollow me now I’ll know why. I think I strike out on at least one count.
Elegant and inefficient. Yes!
Yeah, Chicago is certainly reading material for me. I also love when people can talk about punctuation with such wit.
I suppose I forgot to mention in this post that I think my fickleness with unfollowing people is natural — one’s Twitter stream of ideas and thoughts and noise reflects what I’m interested in at the moment. So, that flow changes constantly. It’s (usually) not personal when I unfollow someone.
I finally got a semi-intelligent phone. For some very unintelligent reason a giant smiley key was placed right between the delete and period keys. Hate hate hate realising I’ve sent message with a smiley face instead of a period at the end.
And yes, wholeheartedly relate to your dislike of LOL. Makes me want to COL, if cringing out loud is possible. If not substitute for cusslikeafuckingsailor.