I suddenly flashed back to my high school years. You see, in the 'tworld' - as in any society - the members naturally tend to rank themselves and those around them. My decision not to reply to this particular tweet was simply because this person and I were not ranked equally. They were out of my league and I knew I would have to choose my tweets to them very carefully, lest I embarrass myself.
[Ironically - as a side-effect of high school - I have also been known to slip into bouts of severe social ineptitude, and sometimes present myself as a quivering mass of hand-wringing, guilt and deprecation in public. So, it could have just been me.]
What the experience really prompted me to ask myself was "how similar to high school is Twitter, really?" Now, I can speak only of my own immediate Twitter 'circle', but I'm willing to venture that the principals are universal.
The new kid in school has only a limited amount of time to ingratiate himself with the social powers-that-be. As I remember it, there were only three levels of acceptance at high school: liked, tolerated, or rejected. Everybody was one of these things to somebody.
I'm not sure of the exact figures, but don't you only have something like three weeks to make an impression, before you irreparably assume what will become your official position for the rest of the school year? Ok, I admit I just made that up - but I bet if ever there was a study into it, I wouldn't be too far off.
The same goes for Twitter. You have a limited number of interactions with a specific tweeter before they decide whether they like, tolerate or reject you. I haven't ever blocked a user (other than the autobots - 'robot' users that spam me with marketing messages and repeated follows). But I do know quite a few tweeters who block and unfollow without a moment's hesitation and will tweet about it afterwards too. Brutal. But then, again, so was high school and we all made it through that, right?
One of the cool kids
Remember how complex the high school social structure was? It's the stuff of nature documentaries. There were divisions by grade, by gender, by academic performance, by background, by race. There were overlaps and conflicts. It was dynamic and ever-changing. The beauty of Twitter is that it's just as cliquey and almost as complex - but you get to CHOOSE which clique you wanna be (or at least try to be) a part of! And, best of all, it can literally be any clique in the world. Whatever is cool to you.
It's like a smorgasbord of aspirational and vicarious experiences. I follow poets, writers, bloggers, musicians, other parents, motivational speakers, newsmakers. Witty and intelligent people, successful people, funny people, and some plain-old nice people. Everything I want to be and sometimes think I am.
And the best part? Some of them follow me back. That's another great contrast with high school. Social interaction is the whole point of Twitter - people don't go on there to do something else and incidentally end up having to interact with others. That means that you actually can be one of the cool kids. Why? Because all the cool kids are looking for other kids that are just as cool as they are (or want to be - as the case may be) and that could very well be you.
Of course you get your fair share of loser hangers-on, sometimes you come across a bully or two, people will laugh at your embarrassing moments from time to time, and once in a while you'll get mixed up with the wrong crowd. But, unlike high school, you can live down any of your twitter experiences with a simple click of the right button. And, much like high school, if you're really lucky you might just get out of it actually having learned a thing or two.
Image: Mark Striver (c) 2001
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