Twitter was inevitable, The Hamster Song, etc.

Below, The Hamster Song
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Twitter was inevitable

Twitter was inevitable… despite my long and stubborn postponement.

So I jumped in. Did a cannon ball, actually. Splash!

After signing up and logging on, I found something in the inbox.  And this I liked.

Hi, Stan Faryna

OGILVY (OGILVY) is now following your updates on Twitter.

Note: Ogilvy is supposedly one of the top ad companies on the planet.

Forbes.com Tech News (ForbesTech) is now following your updates on Twitter.

Note: Everyone knows about Forbes.

Jim Long (newmediajim) is now following your updates on Twitter.

Note: Jim is a social media experts’ expert.

Guy Kawasaki (guykawasaki) is now following your updates on Twitter.

Note: Remember when he was a Mac evangelist? Since then, Guy has done a lot of things, wrote books, and now tweets at 200 mph.

Jesse Stay (Jesse) is now following your updates on Twitter.

Note: Jesse is CEO of SocialToo, a company helping to make it easier to twitter.

Ok, don’t get too excited. They could drop my feed tomorrow. Most likely, they’re just curious and they have no idea who I am.

But that’s ok because somehow even I continue to wonder who am I.  After all, I’m not anyone of great accomplishment.

Not yet.

Here’s something I don’t know how I feel about yet:

(name) x 100 (name*100) is now following your updates

Who are these curious people and what’s wrong with them? It’s not like I’m famous, sexy or funny? I’m none of those things.

And all this love on my first day. Yeah, it feels good.

Thank you all for your kind welcome to Twitter.

And for those who will be unfollowing me in the next 24 hours or near future… Perhaps, because I don’t auto-follow. Still, I wish you success in your search for a following. And, more importanly, may you  find relevance and a home in a world that is becoming a machine without a ghost.

Now, Move along…

Acceleration

Twitter feels like a high speed twelve lane highway at 2am. This is when you actually prefer a Porsche over the Honda.

It’s where real people feel compelled to say (tweet) something… to anyone… almost too often.

But your tweet doesn’t have to be a big idea, a witty reposite, the charming faux pas, whistle-blowing, or revelation.

Depending on who and what you follow, it could be a link to a breaking headline, a description of your next or last meal, how your day is going and general offload from the monkey mind.

Regardless of our envies, jealousies and unspoken temptations that we must encounter on Twitter as we do anywhere and at anytime, we must remember that modesty can be… beautiful.

It will be the beauty of our tweets by which we will be judged, accepted and cherished in this community- not the frequency, volume and ratio to other noise.

When you tweet, consider these little things:

1. The truth as modestly as you or I experience our own truths and revelations
2. The goodness that our counsel and sharing can inspire in feeling, thought, imagination or action, and
3. the personal, professional and spiritual connections that we can make with others through our replies, DMs and our meager repertoire

Tweets

Here’s some tweets I made in the last 24 hours:

@TheDelicious reminiscing about my time in LA… Moby’s song Extreme Ways tells it better than words I can summon http://tinyurl.com/27hjeu

@ForbesTech re: Social networks. U purport to explore the bottom line. U don’t. What if u did!? And that’s what I really expect from Forbes.

@Diligence re: Gem Tower Defense http://www.gemtowerdefense.com Da. Two thumbs up.

Johnny totaled the Porsche Cayenne Turbo. Then a Carrera GT. Now he wants a black Citroen C6. Four year olds! : P

Van Gogh Museum. Amsterdam. Conclusion: Van Gogh’s work is almost interesting. Motivation for Van Gogh’s suicide: fail was unfixable.

Fail: Trackur. They call this a social media… tool?! More like that rubber duck I got from Yahoo! Also a fail http://www.trackur.com

Are my/your/our… lifestyle/expectations/addictions sustainable? Schumacher again? Small is beautiful. http://www.smallisbeautiful.com

Pause.

Yo Moby! Get on Twitter already. You too Miss NRA!

Isn’t everybody on Twitter? Almost. Good guys like @zeldman and real-life crooks too. Hello @onicoara and @vladstan! I see you.

Quick thoughts

At first glance, Twitter is an ideal killer app. Ordinary Attention Deficit Disordered adults can grab their two seconds of notoriety and own it. Eventually, they may get their five minutes, piecemeal. This is way better than blogging. Way easier to apply persistance to… too.

Tweeting requires no great effort or writing ability. And it’s as good as instant gratification gets.

I’m almost ready to say that Twitter may be the cure for existential anxiety (aka nausea) – but I will restrain my pre-mature enthusiasm out of respect for Sartre.

Natürlich, Nietzsche’s Donkey would be appalled. Bitte! baby.

Just don’t remind me that instant coffee (regardless of brand) offends me – me with a caffeine addiction unrivaled by anyone that I know.

If you are not ordinary (as in extraordinary and talented), you can almost have your cake and eat it too. This is the hope for those that believe themselves witty, wry or sexy in an expertly and professional manner – at least. And I think their chances are pretty good, myself.

In fact, Twitter is not just about the ordinary; it seems to be nerd herding at it’s finest. This is yet another expectation which entrepreneurs and dreamers bring to Twitter.

How connected are you? Oh yeah, well do you have 10,000 followers? Working on it? Cool. Ok. Not really. It’s like not enjoying champagne, but there’s always a bottle of Dom in your hand when the cameras start snapping.

Been there, done that– have you?

Uite Asa (Romanian slang for the American slang, What it is…)

The technology and design of Twitter is not rocket science. It’s almost retro in terms of usability and feature. Suddenly, it all makes sense. The secret to a killer app is people getting something with less features and complexity than a toaster. Obviously, the something should always be as ambiguous, irrational and compelling as the bottom line and business model of a social network.

I’ve waited for this revelation for 12 F—— years, meanwhile spending millions of dollars (what should have been cash in my pocket or a Swiss Bank account)… making complex, engaging and usable applications that I couldn’t later afford to bring to market. And I like to think of myself as visionary!

Obviously, not.

It’s good when we stumble upon our own self-deceits. Such discoveries are unfortunately rare. Self-deceit is the real obstacle to success in any endeavor or industry.

Anyway…

Whether or not the various expectations about Twitter are realized by tweeple, great or small, the enthusiasm for those expectations will prevail for a time.

It is already evidenced by the wave after wave of unwashed online marketers and self-proclaimed social media strategists looking for the next gig, sucker, meal or the ultimate secret to success…

It is also evidenced by the tsunami of how to… tweets, blogs and books about Twitter, Tweeting, Retweeting, etc.

Should you follow or unfollow? How to Twitter and Digg? How do you monetize 10,000 followers? 50k? How to go viral on Twitter! These are just a few of the many questions and answers out there. Even Zappos will help you get started.

I’m just calling it like I see it.

Twitter can be a good time. As good as a road trip or house party – and you don’t have to fill the tank. OMG- I just realized that it’s like high school all over again.

More on this new addiction later. If you like, follow me on Twitter. Meanwhile, listen to this…

Mistabishi, From Memory. Album: Drop
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Stan Faryna
February 20, 2009
Bucharest, Romania

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About Stan Faryna

Mr. Faryna is the founder and co-founder of several technology, design and communication companies in the United States and Europe including Faryna & Associates, Inc., Halo Interactive, and others.

Stan Faryna is also a Global Voices author and translator. Global Voices is a non-profit global citizens’ media project founded at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, a research think-tank focused on the Internet’s impact on society.

His political, scholarly, social and technical opinions have appeared in The Chicago Defender, Jurnalul National, The Washington Times, Sagar, Saptamana Financiara, Social Justice Review, and other publications.

Mr. Faryna also served as editor-in-chief of Black and Right (Praeger Press, 1996), a landmark collection of socio-political essays by important American thinkers including U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Copyright

Copyright 1996 to 2009 by Stan Faryna.

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