Twitter - Changes in Values

I'll admit it took me a little while to fully adjust to Twitter and truly understand what it was and how it should be used.

However, now that Twitter has gone 'mainstream' with loads of media hungry celebrities and companies jumping on the bandwagon, I can't help but feel that some of the soul of Twitter has been snatched away.

Twitter used to be about following people (usually complete strangers) that you find interesting. And through this you would form bonds and friendships that you otherwise never would. It was a chance to let out your emotions and opinions(both good and bad) to complete strangers. It meant that when someone 'followed you', they were genuinly interested in your life and what you were writing with your 140 characters.
Also a retweet would show real appreciation for a witty, or truthful observation by somebody. Now it's become a cheap way to gain promotion, and try to nab followers. Such as 'retweet if you think this too'.
I'm not going to write this and say that I'm not taking advantage of twitter, because i do. I've started to use it to help promote my blogs, and sometimes I do feel like it's not the best thing to do.
But I do try to keep the number of people I'm following below the 200 mark, and this sometimes means unfollowing people that i didn't connect with or that i don't find as interesting as i had hoped.
Twitter can be harsh, your views aren't always agreed with, you can be criticised, but you can also be critical yourself.

I feel like people are now just aiming to get large numbers of followers either to feel loved and popular, or to just promote all of thier projects and ideas.
Even some 'twitter celebrities' are emerging with hundreds of thousands of followers.
What was once a place to share your ideas and becoming closer to a few people has evolved into a place where it has become almost impossible to be noticed. But you can't blame twitter itself, it's something that happens to many new websites(partiuclarly social networks), they eventually outgrow thier original purpose simply because of thier popularity.

Posted in: 140 characters, followers, following, new twitter, old twitter, retweet, retweeting, twitter