I have no idea how Twitter works
A few weeks ago I was browsing Facebook when I came upon a status update from my brother. It read: ‘If Britney Spears can get through 2007, you can get through today’.
I thought it was vaguely amusing and it fit within Twitter’s 140 character limit, so I tweeted it.
It was then retweeted 4538 times and favourited 1716 times.
To put that in perspective, if I write a Tweet and it gets retweeted more than ten times I get embarrassingly pleased with myself, and pat myself on the back for managing to distill some part of the essence of human existence into 20-30 words.
4538 times is obviously way beyond that. It is an indication of something that his hit the spot for a lot of people (4-5000 retweets suggests a lot more people who read and liked it but didn’t bother to RT ). But here’s the thing: I didn’t write it (obviously), and I had no idea that many people would give a shit. It’s still being retweeted weeks later.
So what I’m trying to say is that I have no idea what people on Twitter really like (other than the kind of cod-philosophical stuff you can put on a tea towel), but I am happy to be a conduit for my brother’s genius.
Was your brother being silly? Or is he actually a massive Britney fan?
I think he was taking the piss. I’m 99% certain he wasn’t being entirely sincere.
That line has been around for AGES, your brother didn’t invent it. Sorry.
It’s even a meme: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=if+britney+can&sugexp=chrome,mod%3D16&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=jTSpUOaaNPOa1AW-yYHIDw&biw=1366&bih=643&sei=jzSpUODmJvSW0QWNh4C4DA
That’s even more fascinating.
To be fair to him, I don’t think he ever claimed to have written it, but look! It’s a meme and many thousands of people on Twitter (myself included) had no idea.
I wonder where all the less-known memes are hiding (almost certainly that meme website).
If millions of people *don’t* know about it, is it still a meme? Or has “meme” become corrupted to mean something 3 guys in Shoreditch sniggered over on Tumblr?
Ah, 2007. That takes me back, better times, simpler ways.
You are not alone Ben.
But take comfort from the knowledge that your job doesn’t depend on you understanding how Twitter works.
Imagine what the people heading up the news department at – say – the BBC are having to grapple with as they try to understand the impact of the medium on the service they are meant to provide. They don’t get it.
And the seemingly endless conveyor belt of slabs / sportsmen etc who ‘carelessly’ comment in public medium – and stand bemused as they reap the whirlwind. They don’t get it either.
It’s strange place.