Why Tweeting != Narcissism
“Why would anyone care about what I’m doing every minute of every day?” is the beloved question from the haters. Another common, clever argument from the holier-than-thou crowd is the argument that Twitter users are narcissistic. What these folks are missing is an assumption that most Twitter users have arrived at, if only subconsciously: Twitter is the medium for answering the question “What’s going on?” which becomes an open invitation from close friends, family, and colleagues who honestly appreciate the answer.
In other words, when I tweeted tonight “Trying to fall asleep with a little help from Tchaikovsky” it wasn’t because I honestly thought the whole world needed to know or cared about my sleeping habits. It was because I know that there are some people who love and appreciate me who are going to be interested in knowing that I have been having a resurgence of insomnia lately and that I love Tchaikovsky. This equates to idol conversation. There is both an un-spoken question and an (often) unheard response. But it is a conversation. And common, idol conversation is the glue that binds relationships that have any value. This is why I wish more of the people I cared about used Twitter and why I think the afore-mentioned arguments miss the point entirely.
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Tags: narcissism, tweet, Twitter
Andy Branch is a project manager/producer at
I think that there’s another positive motivator behind tweeting, as well: the desire to share. A substantial amount of what people share has nothing to do with themselves; they’re just sharing cool stuff because they think that their friends / family would enjoy it.
Just to nullify what I said above, though, I retain the right to tweet out of 100% pure narcissism.