Ugh. (To myself.)
For the record, I loooooove twitter. Love it.
And I care waaay too much about what other people think.
(Also, how is it possible that I’ve had twitter for many months, yet I’m still learning how to use it? How big is the learning curve on this application, y’all?)
So, this is really silly and shows that I care far, far too much about social media. But one of the (many millions of) things I was excited about when it came to meeting Cory Booker was the inevitable tweet with, “Great meeting you,” or “Great picture,” along with a tweet of a photo (after, of course, I tweeted it to him).
From an outsider’s perspective, it seems like he tweets back every single person who tweets him a picture of them together. Of course, realistically, I’m sure he doesn’t.
(Edited to add: Also, as I went onto talk about twitter in the week following this post, I realized that he has tweeted me a lot – an average of more than once a month. And I don’t even live in New Jersey! So, really, how needy am I? And what did I want from him/why was I asking so much?)
But I tweeted about a million tweets the weekend I met him (actually, I probably tweeted too much. Big mistake there). That, or you know, timing is everything on twitter. I never seemed to get the timing right. I couldn’t upload his speech until the week started. (And I was having trouble with getting some of the pictures out quickly as well.)
… I dunno. So, I just never got the timing right.
Then I was so insecure in “Why is he tweeting everyone else about how great their photo is and how great it was meeting them – but not tweeting me? Was it not great meeting me? Are we not totally bffs? These are some of the best pictures of me from my entire life! How do these not classify as great pictures?!” (She needily whined in her head.)
Well, today on my way to work, Cory Booker was re-tweeting a bunch of corny jokes people sent him.
Mine didn’t get re-tweeted, but I still thought they were good. (A neutron walks into a bar, orders a drink, and asks the bartender how much. The bartender says, “For you? No charge” (Hilarious, right?))
Anyway, I saw him again tweeting about “how great it was to meet people.”
So, I tried one last desperate attempt when he was on twitter and in a playful mood. I tweeted something stupid (and desperate) like, “I know this is really twitter needy, but I really wanted @CoryBooker to think we look awesome happy in this photo. Alas, hasn’t happened.”
Then he did tweet me back. “Thanks for sharing this pic.”
Now, since it seems like everyone under the sun gets a “Great pic!” I didn’t even get an exclamation point…. I of course took that as a declaration that he did not necessarily think it was a great pic, and he was so over my tweets.
But then – other people started tweeting that the picture was cute and all those good compliment-type things. Yeah, Cory Booker! It is a great photo, says all your people on twitter. Why don’t you think so? (over-dramatically cries)
Then, I was judging myself so hard about the stupid, needy tweet I’d sent, that I deleted it – not realizing that the photo would go away as well!
I’d thought that just as when you put something in front of someone else’s words to make the tweet your own, that tweet stays – even if the original tweet is deleted… that the photo would work the same way!
Well, it doesn’t. And I learned it the hard way. So, I super annoyed Cory Booker (he hates me now, doesn’t he?) to the point where he finally tweeted out the picture. Then, I accidentally deleted said picture. (And in this mess, I lost 3 followers. (Guh.))
Basically, complete twitter failure tonight.
Here are my takeaways to this story:
1) I don’t need to have every single thing anyone else has. Him tweeting other people about awesome meetings and photos doesn’t negate our awesome meeting and photos.
2) Don’t worry so much about what other people think – not whether Cory Booker thinks your photos are great – so much so that you annoy him ’til he tweets you…. not whether you’ll still have a twitter follower after you’ve sent such a lame tweet, so you delete a tweet to which freaking Cory Booker himself responded.
Sigh.