Twibbles can be defined as an online Twitter quibble.

I’ve started following on Twitter movie director extraordinaire, Kevin Smith.  Recently he re-tweeted a post he received from somebody who told him that he was being unfollowed.  Kevin then posted in big unfriendly letters BLOCKED!  Fair enough, although why everybody has to know this I just don’t know.  If you’re going to unfollow somebody – JUST DO IT.  Don’t explain to them or to anybody else.  Just do it and walk away.

Twitter is an extraordinary social media system that allows plebs like us to see what the more famous/important folk are up to.  But bloody hell, can it get catty.  I recall following Dragons’ Den entrepreneur Duncan Bannaytyne, whom I’ve always thought of as a honest and fair man.  I was a bit shocked when he started to talk about one of his followers without mentioning much of the context as to why this particular person was being mentioned.  Looking through both sets of tweets, I was astonished to see that Duncan Bannatyne had, rather than blocked and ignore the user in question, started a pissing contest as to who donated the most amount of money to charity.  It was at this point I unfollowed Bannatyne (and no, I didn’t tell him!) as I completely disagree with that sort of thing.  He is in a fortunate position to donate as much as he does.  The person he was referring to may well do a lot of work for charity too – but clearly does not have the same kind of funds that Bannatyne has at his disposal.  It was if he was saying that he was a better human being than the other person because he could donate all this money.  And that should never be the case.  And besides which, charity can extend to offering one’s services and not just financial assistance.

I note that “celebrities” get rather riled when people tell them that they’re being unfollowed.  That, or if somebody really gets up a celebs nose, they use their legions of fans to fight their battles.  Maybe they deserve it, maybe not.  But it’s almost akin to the old pitchfork and torches brigade that was all the fashion back in darker times.

I myself managed to do something utterly stupid on Twitter in that I was following Noel Clarke, actor, writer and director.  And a talented one at that.  He posted a series of jokes involving his kids which I thought a little harsh as he came across as being a little unappreciative as to having kids.  So I unwittingly performed the first rule of Twitter faux pas – I told him that I was unfollowing him for this reason.  He went ballistic and tried to direct message me (althoughly clearly thought the better of it and posted publicly) before announcing to his followers that “this idiot” didn’t understand the joke and went on to belittle me in a few more tweets than than I did with my single post criticising him.  His followers dug into me as well.  And he never gave me a chance to explain or apologise (as I would have done).  As such I haven’t apologised to him as he  subsequently acted in a similarly unprofessional manner – he chose to pounce on me  in public rather than simply ignore and block me.

Still, I got what I deserved.  And was a great lesson to think about what you type (just as you wouldn’t say to somebody’s face – God, I HATE that hat you’re wearing – without at least knowing them well enough that you could get away with saying something like that).   I still like Noel Clarke’s work, but I’m not so sure I would like him as a fellow human being if I were to ever meet him.  I just don’t know.   Humour is very subjective and personal, and what one person finds funny another may find offense (which what happened in this case).  After all, these were merely words typed away on a computer.   A souless machine without a face.  As it is most Twitters don’t know each other from Adam.

And this proves that if you’re not careful, the consequences can turn around and bite you on the bum.  And Twitter is one of those social networks which rely on spontaneity.  The war on twibbles will always continue, as much as trying to converse with 140 characters and complete strangers will allow.