So I have been on the tweety box for a couple of years now and it's a social media tool that I really like, as it allows you to take part in a conversation that you otherwise wouldn't be able to be a part of in be it political matters, health issues, movie reviews or etc.
Like on Facebook, I try to limit the amount of people/companies I follow, mostly because I don't want to get inundated with status updates or tweets. I don't want to spend my day catching up on tweets that I missed while I was sleeping (not that I would anyhow, but still). Since I have a limited amount of people i follow on Twitter, I am used to the pattern that emerges from the people I've been following for a while, so I can almost automatically filter out the tweets I want to catch up on and the one's I don't. Additionally, when I start following someone new, their tweets stick out a bit more.
Recently I started following a celebrity I've enjoyed watching on various movies and television series'.
This person has always seemed to play the staunch, no-nonsense military type characters, but not I didn't put much thought into whether or not there was a reason why this person always seemed to play these kind of characters. I just figured that the person looked the part, so it would make sense why they would be cast in such a role.
Now, maybe it's just me, but when I think of staunch, no-nonsense military type people I tend to think of ultra-conservative, very right-leaning people in a crisp uniform. Maybe that's not fair, but I guess I'm a victim of media (though, in my defense, I also think that anyone serving in the military is worthy of our respect and admiration. They're doing for our countries what we're not willing or able to do ourselves. *sigh* I look forward to your letters). Again though, when I see a person playing the part on camera, I don't assume that they're like that off camera. I seem to have forgotten that these actors also choose the parts they play. Perhaps many actors seem as if they are typecast into certain roles/characters when really, because of their own personal experiences, views, and ideologues they feel drawn towards these roles; they feel as if they can identify with the character.
I logged on to the tweety today and noticed some of the new tweeters tweets and I'm not going to lie. I was pretty disappointed. I went directly to this person's profile and went over a bunch of their tweets and I just saw a lot of condescension, arrogance, flame baiting and stupid, uneducated close-minded remarks. I felt like that person's star had fallen a little bit; at least in my eyes. Obviously I have people I follow who's opinions and views I may not agree with, but I want to be able to follow people I disagree with without them being disagreeable.
I felt as if I was let down, somehow. Like this person had violated some unspoken law or some such nonsense. Upon further reflection though, I felt that maybe this is a good thing. Sure, twitter and Facebook, and the age of social media and instant communication/gratification, people feel as if celebrities are more accessible, but what we are also seeing is that these people are flawed individuals, just as we are. I have never been one for star gazing in the way of reading gossip rags and watching entertainment "news" shows, but I like the idea of people realizing that these celebrities who every actions they read about, tweet about, comment on, and fret over are just as imperfect and fragile as everyone else is. They just do it all in front of a camera.
Who knows; maybe twitter will put an end to the likes of TMZ and the paparazzi. Huh. Wouldn't that be something?
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