Twitter: The Web’s Playground

SUMMARY: Twitter gives a revealing look at the personalities of the most influential bloggers. Some are nice, some are whingy, and some are downright nasty.

I’m new to Twitter, only having registered about a month ago. I methodically went through and added the most important bloggers. I added them because I assumed Twitter would provide a constant stream of interesting comments, informed debate, and professional analysis.
Instead, I get things like this pop up regularly on my Twhirl:

note to that dick Matthew Ingram: I’m going to bed now and cant update posts when I’m sleeping. We’re not all in central dick time

Duncan Riley, Twitter

I’ve never met Duncan, Matt Ingram, or any of the other people I’m writing about here. I live in Brazil, and before that spent most of my time holed up in a small house in London. I’ve never been to California or Silicon Valley. Hence, maybe this is just the kind of bantering that goes on there.

But from reading Twitter, and personal blogs, I think it’s something else. It’s like it’s a big playground, full of little gangs and cliques.

The Gangs

When you first arrive, you get shown around by some nice guys called Robert Scoble, Louis Gray, and Matt Ingram. They tell you how to be a good student, and they’re immensely popular amongst most of the children.

There are the fashionistas like Jason Calacanis, who drive to school in a BMW and walk around preening themselves. They’re OK, as long as you don’t insult their hairstyles.

After a while, you’ll bump into the seniors, led by Dave ‘the Whiner’ Winer. Often they exist as a gang of one, loners who spend most of their time complaining that it’s not really a school any more, since the younger ones have arrived.

It doesn’t take long to bump into the playground’s bullies, led by Micky Arrington. When there’s a fight somewhere in the playground, they either started it, or turn up with fists at the ready. You kind of respect them because they know what they’re talking about, but you always wonder why they have to be so aggressive about it.

Occasionally, somebody new appears, like Loren Feldman. Desperate for attention, he shouts horrible things at everyone. People fairly quickly become bored with them, though, and they fade back into obscurity.

As a New Kid

I’m only a new kid here, not many friends, not part of any particular gang. I wander around, listening to other people’s conversations, sometimes impressed but a lot of the time disappointed by my heroes.