A very close friend recently complained to me that he found Twitter to be nothing more than a vehicle for narcissism.
I’ve been chewing on his point for a few days now as my rebuttal at the time didn’t feel particularly inspired. While I implicitly knew that Twitter was so much more than that, I was having trouble cogently explaining why.
So I was delighted to see an amazing post today by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh entitled How Twitter Can Make You A Better (and Happier) Person. In it, he points to four ways in which Twitter has helped him grow personally:
- Transparency & Values: Twitter constantly reminds me of who I want to be, and what I want Zappos to stand for
- Reframing Reality: Twitter encourages me to search for ways to view reality in a funnier and/or more positive way
- Helping Others: Twitter makes me think about how to make a positive impact on other people’s lives
- Gratitude: Twitter helps me notice and appreciate the little things in life
Rather than a vehicle for narcisism, Twitter is simply a window into you…whomever you may be. So, if you’re a narcisist, that’s how you’ll come across on Twitter. And if you’re real, it’ll be just that. The key to Twitter (and life incidentally) is being authentically you.
Twitter actually helps you be even more authentically you as it forces you to consider at all times how you’re perceived by others. Tony rightly and profoundly points out:
If you were always on camera, then everything you did would go towards shaping your personal brand, whether positive or negative. What are your personal values, and what values do you aspire to?
Well, today we are always on camera. And for those of us who want viewers to regard us positively, Twitter actually helps better you as an individual. That’s why I love it.
You can follow me on Twitter @mokoyfman.
And you can find me @moth. I’m not much of a narcissist, so that wouldn’t appeal, but find Twitter to be an excellent tool to make my work approachable to others, stay in touch with old friends, and get closer to new ones, not to mention have a good, if light, sense of what’s going on everywhere. I like to think of Twitter as telepathy plus amnesia (or a very short attention span), which is the only kind of telepathy that would be bearable.
Reblogged from mokoyfman.com (permalink)
