Twitter.

I realize I’m culprit to some of the most annoying things about Twitter, but please … can get a few things out there?

Social Networking is exactly what it sounds like … networking. Building a community, being part of something bigger. Surrounding yourself with the kind of information that will either drive you forward or keep you right where are.

I choose to surround myself with banter and information that takes me away from the humdrum. So, no … I will not follow you just because you’re following me. If the the last 3 tweets you sent out into the world have something to do with your cat being adorable, @ing your Aunt Betty about what’s for dinner or complaining about your husband … you are not interesting.

We, as a social networking consumer, have a pretty substantial play in how the networks morph and work. Meaning … you get to make it work FOR you. If I wanted to surround myself with mom’s who have young children, I could. And we could tweet away about how tired we are and how adorable the baby is or how incredibly smart our preschoolers are. Recognizing octagons! Look at them, FUTURE ASTRONAUTS.

I don’t mind some of that and personally push that content out on a regular basis. I don’t intend to make every single one of my followers happy on a tweet by tweet basis, but maybe I should. What am I really saying? What do I even HAVE to say?

Most of Twitter is just noise in my opinion. Noise that I find really annoying. If all you do is tweet about your blog and OMG have we read it YET? I get bothered. So I try not to tweet about my blog. Once in a while when I write something I’m either proud of or think is a mass-worth-while I’ll blast a link out. Otherwise, it’s just not for me.

Some people see Twitter as a conversation and if you don’t join in their conversation (follow them back after they follow you) they get offended and unfollow you. Did you follow that? Here’s what I think. I think Twitter is a conversation but some times people don’t want to be engaged.

So here’s my policy if I had one:

I control the information coming at me really, really well. I keep it to a minimum and I keep it quality. I get to choose that because I get to choose who I follow, what I read and where I go. This isn’t a proverbial sandbox we’re playing in … it’s the internet and it’s not always safe and it’s not always awesome. There’s real jerks out there, really really good liars. Twitter is easily becoming the new way to spam someone. There’s so much junk and pointless crap floating around that if given the chance to ignore it or clean it up … I will.