Twitter Is Exhibitionism? Sure!

There’s a funny video making the rounds that is about Twitter. There are two main characters, a young guy and another guy in his 30’s. The younger guy isn’t on Twitter and the other takes him and shows him the Twitter world (”into the Twittersphere!!”). They end up getting eaten by the fail whale and the older character ends up lying on the floor dying and trying to tweet about it. OK somewhat macabre, but funny nonetheless.

In one exchange the younger guy asks “Why is everyone such an exhibitionist all of the sudden?”.

It’s an interesting question and I think it captures something of Twitter’s appeal as well as the reason for it’s success.

We are living in a media age, and more than perhaps ever before people are looking for entertainment in almost everything. We don’t just read news, we get it from the sources that are funny, diverse, and appealing. And the more entertaining it is, the more credible. Just look at Jon Stewart. Even Jim Cramer. It’s all about entertainment.

So in this media age, we are fans of others. Fans in a loose way maybe, but as bloggers and website owners and social media users the more entertaining we can be the more people follow us. They become our fans.

Back to exhibitionism. Why should we be showing off what we are doing this morning or afternoon? Who should care if I’m a little tired or ate a hamburger for lunch? Really nobody should. But what it I can make my Twitter stream entertainment … and say those things or other things like them, in an entertaining way. Don’t we have a bit of a desire for others to follow us? To want to be around us? Making our Twitter updates interesting and entertaining satisfies our desire to gather fans. And in this age of entertainment and media, it’s all about fans.

So is exhibitionism bad? Not really. I suppose it can have it’s excess. But it satisfies our desire to be entertaining and gives others another place to be a fan. Sounds like meeting a need in society …