Aayush Arya is a student from India and regular contributor for Right now, there is this weird meme going on in the Indian parts of Twitterland where a lot of users are jostling for a chance to “date” one of three Twitter users who’re “auctioning themselves off”. If that sounds stupid and indicative of a continuing downward spiral in Indian culture to you, welcome to the club. And even if it doesn’t, please read on—this article is especially for you.
Right off the bat, let me just say it outright: I’m against these sorts of things. Yes, I know that makes me an orthodox curmudgeon but I honestly could care less about what anyone thinks of me for having such an approach.
I’m not, however, intolerant. If you want to participate in an auction to win a date, by all means, feel free to do so. My only request is that you respect Twitter for what it is—a public platform for expressing your thoughts. Anything you post on Twitter is read by a significant number of your followers, who, depending on your popularity, may number in the thousands. And when you post about one particular topic repeatedly, there’s a good chance that almost all of your followers will have to read at least a few of those tweets that you’re constantly pushing out.
And therein lies the problem.
If I have a problem with a couple of people’s tweeting habits, I can strike them off the list of people I follow without giving it a second thought. Problem solved. However, when a whole host of the people I follow start posting absurd rubbish that is littering my timeline with gibberish I have no patience for, launching myself into a mass pruning session is hardly the solution then.
As a member of Twitter, you have to adhere to one simple rule: don’t constantly post stuff that makes you look like a jackass. When I sometimes get into debates about the “Apple vs. all the other companies in the world” war on Twitter, for instance, I always make sure that I wrap up the conversation before it starts to become an irritant for those of my followers who aren’t involved in the debate.
No one is forcing my hand here but it’s just the right thing to do. I can, of course, choose to rudely point out to my followers that they can “unfollow” me if they don’t want to hear what I have to say and it really wouldn’t matter much to me if a few people were to take me on my word, but is that really how I’m expected to behave on a platform like Twitter?
Keeping aside my grudges with the entire idea of an online auction for scoring dates, that is what offends me most—the disrespect you show to your followers by being an irascible jackass. It’s not about whether they can choose to stop following you or not, it’s about whether or not you should do stuff that forces them to make that decision. It’s about showing your followers some respect.
