If your Twitter profile is set to private, you can ignore this ranting post. It doesn’t apply you to.
If your Twitter profile is public, please take heed to this rant. It’s actually something you should seriously consider.
Every time I see a tweet, or someone’s Twitter bio, that says something like, “It’s only Twitter. It’s no big deal,” it makes me itch!
NO! It’s NOT just Twitter!
It’s called the public timeline for a reason, good people.
What you tweet is being seen in so many places on the web right now and indexed for posterity later that it’s not even funny. Every tweet gets a unique identification number and that number, associated with your words, becomes a link on many of search engines, especially Google, and on many of the third-party Twitter tools that are in existence and being created on a daily basis.
You don’t believe me?
No problem.
Try this:
1) Go to Google or Yahoo! or MSN Search or any other search engine.
2) Type your Twitter handle (with the @ symbol for one search and without it for another search) into the search field.
Now look at all the different sites and applications that have cataloged your tweets and how your tweets are being used.
The web isn’t losing popularity. It’s gaining it with more and more social media tools being created every day. What that means is that you’re information is being indexed and cataloged 24/7, and that information is going to be available for many years to come, even when you’re dead and gone.
You need to also not lose sight of the fact that your tweets and Twitter handle are being used by others to promote their own agendas. These may be sites you’ve never visited or even heard of. How can they do this? They’re taking advantage of the public timeline. Remember that.
Think about that when you think, “It’s just Twitter. It’s no big deal.”
The content you’re producing with your tweets today, do you want that same content associated with you in years to come?
Think about it.
For real.
Think about it.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
This exercise shocked me but since I don't post anything I can't restate or defend, have no choice but to accept it. However, I will now be very cautious about stating my real-time location and may even make my tweets private going forward.
I was completely shocked & freaked out when I tried the Google search like you suggested. I immediately made my profile private. I was most definitely someone who thought, “oh it's just my Twitter.” I am actually pretty careful about giving out any personal info, but even still. My name was tied in to all kinds of websites that I have never associated with!
WHAT?!?!?! I can't believe all these applications that are using my twitter information. I've never heard of most of them, and there are tweets from almost a year ago showing up on Google. One of them that's tracking me is a site that catalogs who uses what cuss words. This is crazy. I feel weird.
You're most welcome for the information. This is why I want people to do the exercise. It's not about whether you're comfortable with what you're saying on Twitter. It's about how your information is being used without your knowledge. Since we're on the public timeline, we gave up privacy for this. People need to know that.
I typed in my handle in Google as well and there are pages and pages of my tweets and information from ALL of the sites I am a member of and Information on sites I have never been to; some sites used my handle in the search just to get others to come to their site. Wow! Eventhough it is the web, I didn't know that almost everything I say is being recorded like this…it makes me feel like my privacy is being invaded. I have to rethink my social networking…Thanks for the information.
Exactly!!! Many things associated with your Twitter handle is being generated from what you tweet. That's what I want people to realize. Thanks for taking time to do the exercise and to comment.
This was scary. I am thankful that so often that voice has said “don't give out specifics”. Even still, many things associated with my Twitter handle were not posted by me. Uh-oh
Well, I went and googled my Twitter handle and was (still am) STUNNED to see the number of different websites that are indexing many of my tweets! I have no clue as to why this is being done, but I do know that I need to be more careful about what I say and about the pictures I post. Yikes!!