 Please don’t break our second baseman. Photo taken in February ’09 by Kelly O’Connor/sittingstill.net. Used with permission |
Do you Twitter (or Tweet? I’m not sure what the proper verb would be to describe using Twitter)? I do. I don’t follow that many people, but the folks I do follow are either people I know, people who make me laugh, or people who have something interesting to say (usually in regard to baseball or politics). I was a bit unsure how to use Twitter when I first signed up (goaded on by a friend’s suggestion) but I’ve come to really enjoy it.
I have more than a couple of friends who don’t like Twitter. They find it invasive and voyeuristic and don’t feel comfortable “following” people or being “followed”. When I first opened my account, I made sure that my updates were private. That way, if someone wanted to read what I was writing, they’d have to put a request in to follow me, so I’d know exactly who was reading me. I’m a little surprised that more people don’t do that.
I have a MySpace account that I, pretty much, neglect. Facebook and Twitter are the only two online activities (aside from this one) that I pay close attention to, so I liked having a little control. But the other day, someone who follows me posted a tweet that read something like “If I’m following you because of sports, I don’t want read about what you had for lunch”. Now, it wasn’t in reference to me, but it opened my eyes a bit. I went through my Twitter account and deleted any personal tweets I had left since opening the account. Then I made my Twitter profile/updates public. It only makes sense that people are going to read “Toeing the Rubber” and expect baseball tweets. And if that’s what I’m providing, there’s no reason to keep the page private.
But here’s why some people SHOULD keep their Twitter page private: Because if you don’t, other people will actually be able to read what you write.
That sounds simple enough, I know, but a lot of people don’t get it. I know someone who fired her babysitter because every one of her status updates on MySpace was about how much she hated the kids she babysat. MySpace isn’t Twitter, but the same logic applies. Hell, when I decided to start blogging, one of the first decisions I made was to make sure I kept most of my real life away from the blog. I sometimes mention my family or some other innocuous detail about my life, but the most you’ll ever read about my day job is that I had a bad or good day. Nothing else. Why open yourself up for what could happen if people you don’t want reading something read it? So, seriously folks, if you’re on Twitter, or MySpace, or Facebook or any OTHER social networking site…take advantage of the privacy settings. Your friends will be able to find you and you get to control who reads what you write. And that will give you he ability to be more yourself online without fear of getting in any kind of trouble.
I write all this because of something I stumbled upon last night. In searching Twitter for news (it’s actually a very good source for all kinds of information!), I came across a tweet that mentioned the phrase I typed. In clicking on the twitterer’s (?) name, I started reading some of his tweets and realized he was famous. An athlete (not from a New England or Tri-State area team and not one of the non or ex-Red Sox players I follow) who is currently active and playing for a well-known team. His Twitter name has nothing familiar about it to people who don’t personally know him and he never mentions who he is, except to sometimes mention he’s a professional athlete. I immediately hit “follow”, kind of unconsciously. Then I noticed he didn’t have that many followers. And THEN I noticed that most of his tweets were of the personal nature and that it was most likely that his followers were only friends, not fans, and he kept them to a minimum. So that’s when I decided to stop following him. I’m not his friend, I don’t know him, I have no business following him. But I tend to have a den motherish side to me (Some I know tell me that I’d like to be the world’s “Auntie”) and it was really bothering me that his profile was public. I didn’t read all he wrote, and what I did read wasn’t bad, just not related to sports, but in the public eye he has a fairly decent reputation. How lousy would it be for some off-the-cuff tweet of his to come out and get him in all kinds of trouble?
My concerns were quelled this morning when I went back to his page to see if there was a way, without following him, that I could contact him and say something along the lines of “You don’t know me, but I really think you should consider making your profile private”. I’ll never know if there is a way to do that because when I got to his page, it was on lock down.
This person has protected their updates.
You need to send a request before you can start following this person.
It wouldn’t surprise me if he noticed some random person he didn’t know following him and then NOT following him and got concerned. Good. At least this morning he has a better idea of how to handle his online life.
See this is why I blog and don’t “report”. I don’t have that killer instinct. I could never “out” someone that way.
Given the nature of the blog, I suppose I should mention SOMETHING baseball-related. Let’s see….the WBC broke Dustin Pedroia and, in protest, team USA then went out and got their asses kicked in a mercy-rule ended game. Also, Clay Buchholz pitches against Baltimore today but you can only listen onWRKO (or online at Redsox.com) because the game isn’t on NESN. Kick some butt, Clay!