On a misty Sunday afternoon, I was happily reading my Twitter feed, after all, it’s only about day 29 of me feeling under the weather. Suddenly I see this tweet on my feed:

‘a BROKE 35 year old MEXICAN BITCH, that doesn’t own a car, no job . . . judge me’

You get the idea.

Wow! What a rant. Well I immediately hit UNFOLLOW for this person. She was angry and her true colors, or rather her true feelings, really came out.

Twitter is public and a person’s tweets live on forever, I have to remember that before I hit the SEND button. Twitter is also a place where each user can choose to FOLLOW or UNFOLLOW users based on what you see in their Twitter time line. Twitter doesn’t define a users race or ethnicity when you see their profile, I mean just because my last name is ADAMS doesn’t mean I don’t have an ethnicity or heritage. So if you want to follow a person and respect them, you really need to see how they tweet, after all a user’s tweet identifies a lot about people – who they are, their likes or dislikes, their values, their interests, etc.

Reading any user’s timeline helps everyone to learn whether or not they FOLLOW want to UNFOLLOW this person. It also helps identify if that tweeter account is spam, which no one wants to engage in. That time line also identifies other users that may be good to follow or unfollow and it identifies who that user is conversationally engaged with on Twitter.

There are lots of people I don’t follow, the spammers, the sales people, those I don’t agree with on their opinions, and anyone that offends me. I really am aware that what I may post could cause anyone to unfollow me. After all, I tweet a lot about HIV, AIDS, Women’s Health, transgender issues, addiction issues, social work issues, and my political opinions, which I am sure not everyone wants to read about. So unfollow me, I won’t be offended. But I also believe it’s not for me to say ugly things about you if you don’t agree with my opinion or tweets. As a professional, I really should act with integrity when responding to tweets of those that may not like my tweets.

After all, Twitter is not a popularity contest!

I’m not on Twitter to increase my popularity, I’m here to engage with people who are similar to me, provide articles of interest, learn new ideas from, and get the news. Some people don’t get Twitter, I didn’t get it at first, but what I did get is that I don’t have to like everyone and they don’t have to like me. I choose those I want to follow and choose carefully. I also choose whether or not I want to follow everyone

who follows me. My Twitter feed doesn’t need to be full of tweets I won’t read. I do like having my tweets retweeted, that’s always nice. How does that happen, I tweet something that those following me want to retweet. Usually a retweeted item leads to more exposure, which can lead to more popularity, which can lead to more followers, that I can choose to follow.

So if you don’t like what you see, or if something offends you, you have the option to use that handy-dandy UNFOLLOW button. I won’t be offended, you have a right to choose, just as I do.

Tweet respectfully!