I guess that’s fair. Eight million is a number I can comprehend, but cannot imagine on my own Twitter feed, which hovers at 35,000. On the other hand, I do not take my 35K followers for granted. In fact, I doubt even those with 2,000, 200 or 15 followers take them for granted. The audience, no matter what the size, matters.
For those of you who don’t already know, Kutcher’s actions, which he explained in a post called “Twitter Management,” came after he tweeted a defense of fired Penn State football coach Joe Paterno. Paterno’s assistant coach has been caught up in an intense child sexual abuse scandal. Kutcher somehow missed the entire controversy and posted a knee-jerk response that was not, to put it lightly, well-received.
Now Kutcher has decided that he can’t be trusted with his own feed. It’s too precious. There are too many people watching and he doesn’t want to massively fail in front of them. “While I will continue to express myself through @Aplusk I’m going to turn the management of the feed over to my team at Katalyst Media to ensure the quality of it’s [SIC] content.”
In other words, from now on, you @APLUSK followers will never know if it’s Ashton tweeting or a Twitter account handler. There’s also a chance that all future tweets be run through a “PC” (Politically Correct” filter). This is a shame. The best accounts on Twitter, and I think Ashton’s has been one of them, are those that are managed by the account holders. Obviously, there are situations where the Twitter account is for a brand or product and it’s impossible to know who is tweeting what. However, when the account is for a celebrity or other notable person, there’s a certain excitement and entertainment value in knowing that they really thought and said that tweet.
Look, I am not defending what Kutcher said. I am astounded that he seemed totally unaware of this huge, national story. Yet, while some people don’t believe his defense, I’m willing to cut Kutcher some slack. Sometimes, we’re busy, not looking at the TV or our social feeds and miss something big. In our always connected world, it doesn’t happen often anymore, but it does happen.
I’ve made my share of mistakes online and on Twitter. It’s not fun. In reality, everyone makes mistakes. Owning up to them, as Ashton did is a good thing. I’m also all-too-familiar with the feeling you get when you first realize that you’ve messed up. Queasy is the word that comes to mind. And when the negative response starts flowing in, the natural reaction is to want to run away. That said, while I have considered closing my Twitter account on one or two occasions, I can’t imagine someone else tweeting for me.
Over the years I have seen many celebrities run away in horror from their Twitter accounts. The celebrity makes a flippant comment or criticism in Twitter, the audience reacts and then the celebrity makes the mistake of answering for it on Twitter. It almost inevitably ends in said celeb taking a “Twitter break.” Most of them slowly creep back to their accounts by the time all has been forgotten or forgiven. It’s true, anonymous individuals can be merciless on the service, especially when you’ve inadvertently picked one of their favorite scabs—they cry out in pain and then complain about the blood. It’s always dramatic and angry and the celebrities are usually stunned.
Kutcher, though, is supposed to be different. He understands social media. He invests in it. I think he loves it. And he has to know that by handing any part of his Twitter feed over to handlers he is destroying it.
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