Valentine’s Day Post: Twitter – from blind date to infatuation?

Blind date

I joined Twitter in 2009 because everyone was talking about it.

To be honest, I thought it was a total waste of time. I didn’t do much beyond sign up. It just seemed to be a place where people bragged about themselves. Why on earth would people want to know what I had had for breakfast? Or indeed, that I was fed up coz my 2 year old had just refused to eat his dinner? It was a bit like meeting a bloke for the first time, and thinking that they were just a bit of a show-off.

First impressions count and all that.

But, when I started my KiddyCharts business in May this year, someone said I would have to get onto Twitter. If you ran your own business, it’s just what you did. Why on earth should I bother? I didn’t like it the first time, so why should I now.

Getting to know you

This time though, instead of just turning up for a bit of a blind date with Twitter, I tried to get to know it a bit first. I read about it. I’m good at that, in my former life I was a tweed-skirted librarian, don’t you know. So, I researched it, and slowly started to feel a bit more comfortable.

I set up an ID (@KiddyCharts), and I started tweeting. I was a bit nervous at first; isn’t everyone on their first date? But my tweets improved and my follower numbers grew. Not only that, but the people I met on there, weren’t just telling me what they had for breakfast, they were sharing useful information with me, making me laugh and helping me when I had a problem. We were actually having a bit of fun this time around. Though the first time had been nervy, we were actually getting to like each other’s company.

We have now been dating for about 9 months, and I am definitely getting into Twitter a lot more.  I can be seen tweeting in strange places and at strange times of day.  As a working mother, I have to tweet when I can, and that sometimes includes in the loo, under the duvet, and while making the kids their toast. Though I do have to make sure I don’t then put the iPhone in the toaster accidentally….

Frankly, I am enjoying Twitter this time around.  There is no-one more surprised about that than me. I am finding it wonderful to meet other people who struggle as much as I do to juggle everything in their lives, whether its kids, work, or both.

From infatuation to married life

I had expected that Twitter would be a passing craze; just a bit of a quick flirtation. From those first unsure steps when I really judged Twitter before even trying it, I am now totally infatuated with it. But I am still not there yet by any means.

Infatuation isn’t a healthy thing. You are bordering on the obsessed, and sometimes you have to step back and rein things in.  That’s where I am with Twitter now.  I love it, but I am having to make sure I don’t spend too much time on it. There is no point checking my stats every day. Do I really need Twitter on all the time, or should I just be checking my stream and Twitter lists twice a day for the interesting stuff?

I shall be spending the next few months continuing to work out where this relationship is headed. I need to decide when to meet up with Twitter and for how long. I probably need to reduce the amount of time I spend with it too. Twitter and I need to move past infatuation, and into married life.

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