Here’s Why We Don’t Follow Celebrities
We really don’t care for the elevated status given to celebrities, just because they get paid to act, sing, tell jokes, or whatever they do to get famous. Mostly because they use that status to push their own agenda. And also because their raving fans follow them around like lost puppies, drooling over the opportunity to do their bidding.
You may recall that we started the #notfollowing hashtag several months ago as a response to the way #followfriday had turned into nothing more than a “I love you,” “No, I love you more…” bit of nonsense. So we decided to announce to the twitter world who we’ve made a conscious decision to not follow that week. Over time, this weekly list has developed themes, because we’re lazy and once we start with one person, it’s easy to find others like them.
We first made the decision to #notfollow @stephenfry on March 13, when we noticed that he had asked people to include #followmestephen in a tweet. It didn’t appear that he actually followed everyone who tweeted that message, so we thought that wasn’t exactly playing fair.
Since then, he’s been on our #notfollowing list on May 3, and September 27. He obviously didn’t care. Why? Because with hundreds of thousands of people fawning over him 24/7, he doesn’t have time to read all the garbage in his timeline. (Yes, we know our tweets are garbage. We said it so you don’t have to.) He did, however, notice this casual remark:
which then became this exchange:
A rational person may think Stephen overreacted just a bit, however this started a firestorm on twitter that will continue for some time. The people who love @stephenfry probably couldn’t bear the thought that maybe he really was boring, and they were just too blinded by his celebrity to notice. That would shatter their world. And if he stopped tweeting, that would be infinitesimally infinitely more serious than when @alyssa_milano announced on October 30 that her boyfriend had banned her from twitter for the evening.
(Note to feminists: don’t get your panties in a wad. She rebelled and tweeted anyway.)
So they attacked @brumplum viciously. Stephen and Richard have since made up, but that won’t stop the tweets and retweets on this subject, because on twitter, nothing ever goes away. Do a twitter search for #fixreplies and you’ll see people still up in arms about the “new” way twitter is managing replies. This change happened nearly 6 months ago, which is ancient history on the internet. To top it all off, many of these bellyachers weren’t even around before the change. It’s just so fun to complain, they had to climb on board.
When we noticed this story get big press, we decided this would be today’s #notfollowing theme. You were probably wondering when we’d get back on topic. Feel better now?
Not surprisingly, we got some hate annoyed responses. No biggie. If we can give it, we’d better well take it. Because sticks and stones…and all that. You’re probably wondering why people would be so protective of Stephen. It’s not because he has bipolar disorder and was feeling down. Lots of people on twitter have BP and nobody pays any attention to them. No, it’s because of the huge value he brings twitter as a whole. This was summed up perfectly by one of his fans:
Wow. He is using social media to be social, and not just to beg for attention like a spoiled cheerleader at Homecoming. (Hi Marcia). This kind of thing just might catch on.
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Ha! There used to be an account called something like @stephenfrywontreply because the user was pissed that @stephenfry was only a broadcaster and wouldn’t actually talk to his fans.
I only know of this Fry chap because he had a reoccurring role on “Bones.” You would think that with his connections he could get on “House” (maybe as a patient with a weird disease).
I was around before twitter changed replies. I’m still pissed about this. I almost quit twitter that day. Since they seemed to take the social right our of social media, just as they have since taken the blogging right out of micro-blogging. I have hardly added any followers since they change replies. I was averaging about 4 a day because I interacted with the followers of my followers. I’ve since gotten pickier, but I seem to gain about as many as I lose. But unlike most people with huge counts, I block shitloads and unfollow anyone that’s been inactive more than 14 days.
I do have to give @stephefry some…
i stopped following @StephenFry – glad i didn’t say why aloud, lol. I also watched that @brumplum fiasco – i thought Mr Fry behaved very badly, (Until he apologised for causing the whole thing through his own stupid behaviour.) The whole drama queen tanty (and the disgusting behaviour of his friends and followers) made me feel very glad i’d already unfollowed him.
Frankly, with all those followers (the ones he doesn’t follow back) sucking up to him, and his yob real life friends attacking anyone who dares to criticise him, you’d think he’d be proof against one bloke saying he was a bit boring.
Another good reason not to follow celebs.
And i’m still pissed off about the @ replies thing
[...] Stephen Fry’s Twitter Fail was covered previously in this blog, but i must say, i was very disappointed in his behaviour. I’d unfollowed him ages ago, tired of being one of a quarter of a million people nodding and smiling at his every move. He’s now got around 1.2 million followers. However, I unfollowed him because he was boring- like @brumplum did. [...]
I use Twitter to interact, but there are some out there who really want nothing more out of it than to receive Tweets from their favorite celebs. My husband is one of those people. He is following close to 200 celebrities, most I didn’t even know he liked. The other day he said, “Do you follow Christina Applegate?” and I said no….why would I? In other words, he uses Twitter to be a fan rather than to actually communicate.
[...] kind of behavior is one reason why we don’t follow her, or any celebrities. We don’t need them to ignore us. We get ignored by plenty of regular people every [...]
who is marcia? @____@
You’re not Marcia’s attorney, are you? We’re so not falling for that.