Twitterpated

Scrolling through my Twitter feed this morning, I noticed someone saying that no matter how interesting a person sounds, they won't 'follow back' if the person isn't engaging with their followers.  I took that to mean doing things like having conversations in tweet form.

Ummmmm...

Yah....

Totally not good at that.  Hell, I'm not good at starting conversations with the people I follow on Twitter, let alone engaging in witty repartee.  Sometimes, with friends, I can achieve something like that.  Banter.  Chat.  Whatever. 

I can do that in person.  Sometimes.  Occasionally, 'hey, can I help you reach that?' at the Walmart (because I'm tall and they aren't, or they're old and I'm not) turns into fifteen minutes of conversation.  Yes, I can turn an offer of aid into a conversation if I encounter the right person. 

I can do that via email. 

I haven't yet found a way to do that on Twitter.  I'm wordy, for one.  Trying to encapsulate everything I want to say in a 140 character blurb is exhausting.  And I detest longer tweets that are broken into segments (pt 1 of 3? Do they have a program for that?) because I have a tough enough time following a tweet thread without having to piece together a sentence from disconnected parts. 

I do enjoy chat.  Facebook chat.  Gmail chat.  The problem with that is when someone wants to chat and damned if I don't have something else I have to do right when they want to chat.  I'd chat all day, if I could.  Heh, that's pretty much how I managed to bomb my last year of college - too much time chatting on the mainframe.

Another part of the problem with all the socialization stuff is that I don't want to be a bother.  Or sound stupid.  Or be weird.  If I don't know you that well, I'm less inclined to take the risk of coming off like a total freak.  If I know you well, you already know how much of a freak I can be, and you're either okay with that or not.  LOL

Anyway, I guess whoever that was on Twitter won't be following me back.  And I'm okay with that.  I am who I am.  If you're out there and want to engage with me, I'll engage right back, but don't expect me to start the ball rolling. 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be sitting over here against the wall, watching the world go by.