Monday, May 10, 2010

Twitter Groupies



I spend a lot of time on twitter. I follow maybe 280 people. Some are celebrities but a lot I know in reality. Out of the celebrities that I follow, I do tweet to some when they ask a question or if they say something interesting. If I find that a celebrity doesn't have anything interesting to say, then I'm quick to un-follow. I mostly tweet about music so of the rappers/singers that I do mention I usually use their twitter handle. (looking through my list) Here is a list of celebrities that I follow:

  • Talib Kweli
  • Janelle Monae
  • Dondria
  • Vivian Green
  • James Harden
  • Jeff Green
  • Rudy Gay
  • Lupe Fiasco
  • Naledge (Kidz in the Hall)
  • Chad Ochocinco
  • J Cole
  • Dwight Howard
  • Fabolous
  • Chuck Inglish (The Cool Kids)
  • Kevin Durant
  • Phonte
  • Wale
  • Marsha Ambrosius
  • Ludacris
  • Keri Hilson

With that said there are numerous celebrities that I used to follow and for one reason or another (probably because they're a lot dumber than I thought they were) I stopped following them:

  • Puffy
  • Reagan Gomez
  • Tia Mowry
  • Trey Songz
  • Pusha T
  • Malice
What really grinds my gears when it comes to some of my followers and celebrities is when they transcend the line between fan and twitter groupie. What defines a twitter groupie you ask? This isn't exactly a science but in fact just my opinion.

-If you tweet to a celebrity more than 6 times a day or 42 times a week (and they never tweet you back), then you might be a twitter groupie.

-If more than 40% of your follow list consists of celebrities you might be a twitter groupie.

-If you genuinely get upset or jealous when you see someone else tweets to your favorite celebrity then you might be a twitter groupie.

-If you send pictures of yourself in compromising positions to celebrities then you might be a twitter groupie.

The hypocrisy that occurs when it comes to groupies is hilarious to me. Especially on Sundays. During "Basketball Wives", it's interesting to see the amount of shade that gets thrown the way of the women on the show for being groupies having relations with NBA players. Some of these same women who bash the "Basketball Wives" will turn around and e-throw their panties at Trey Songz or tell Keri Hilson that they want to Slow Dance with her (yes Twitter groupies can be men as well).

Its actually sad and pathetic when you see a person tweet to a certain celebrity time and time again, day after day in the hopes that they might recognize them and tweet back. Some celebrities have upwards of hundreds of thousands of followers. I have about 450 and even I miss @ replies sometimes. I can imagine how many someone like Fabolous gets every couple of minutes.

I wrote all this to say that a twitter groupie can be just as bad as regular groupie. Maybe worse because if anyone on your timeline follows the same celebrity they can see your shenanigans. If you are offended by this post then you're probably a twitter groupie and take from that what you will.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Glad somebody spoke on it Tun...seems to be a prevelant nuisance as of late that most can agree with. People can't really think that an @ reply on twitter means that much...I'm sure you pissed some ppl off with this...good work!

Reecie said...

I'm not sure I follow any twitter groupies. it is really not that serious. I'm a fan of a lot of ppl but I'd never play myself on the internet for them--dont they know their tweets are being archived by the library of congress?! you can't show your crazy all in the wide like that, in person is MUCH better (I kid...)

anyway, so not that serious to do any of those things you mentioned on twitter for ANYONE.

Shemika S said...

Funny post...I don't really follow celebrities because I have found that I appreciate them a lot more as artists, athletes, etc. than on a personal level(i.e. via twitter). I quickly found this out from watching all of the infamous reality shows and reading a couple of their timelines.Even people that I really admire I refuse to follow because I appreciate my perception of them and I would rather not have it tainted.

Nonetheless people want 15 minutes of fame and if getting a response from a celeb would make their day so be it. Even though the response may be as random as winning the lotto it may make them happy lol.

The title,Twitter Groupies, makes me giggle.

Unknown said...

You had me at e-throwing panties!

It's OK to flirt with celebrities if you want to, or RT them. After all, they are regular people with feelings. Personally, I only follow celebrities that talk to their followers as opposed to those who just tweet about their projects: I can read about their work somewhere else, Twitter is really about relationships.

Yes, I'm guilty of getting all geeked-up with a celeb @ messages or RTs me, but only the ones who's intelligence and work I respect (like @fatbellybella, @indiaarie, @Mo_Rocca, @questlove, @danielsunjata, @RachelTrue) or who have something constructive to say. Yes, I've conversed with all the people I've named above, but if they were stupid about it, I'd definitely unfollow.

Lots of celebs (like "regular" people) encourage groupie behavior because they tweet ratchet-ass content and promote ignorant-ass viewpoints. As such, they will get the mindless groupies with naked avatar photos who use bad grammar and all caps. To each his own.

Tunde said...

@Alexius:

"I'm sure you pissed some ppl off with this."

-yeah one of my followers seems really affected right now. *shrug*

@Reecie:

you're playing about real life but i'd rather you do that. at least everyone in your timeline won't see it. and you're right about tweets being archived. gotta watch what you say now.

@Shemika S:

you're right about views of celebrities being tainted. i.e.- raegan gomez for me. smh

@Deltra:

i will admit when a celebrity does respond to a question it does feel sort of good to be recognized. i.e.- when vivian green and janelle monae responded to me. i just get disgusted when people go overboard with it.

Camile said...

Funny but oh so true. It's funny to me when people claim to "know" celebrities and get personal or call the celebrity "bro" first of all no one cares and in all actuality when you are close to someone like that, you don't need to broadcast that on a social network. No one needs to know the "connections" you have and no one cares.

Streetz said...

Groupies come in both the physical and digital form. Great post.

Lets not even start on the blogging jumpoffs...lmao

Tunde said...

@Streetz: dude blogging jumpoffs could be a blog in itself. lol. i'm waiting on you to post that one.