Maybe I Should Be More Selective Who I Follow Back

by Chris McGinty of AccordingToWhim.com

I think there is a slight difference between the terms “social network” and “social media.” I’m sure that there is an actual definitional difference, but I’m talking more as a philosophical approach. Social networking is meeting the friends of your friends and sometimes becoming friends. This could happen in real life. I met my friend Kristen through my friend Adrian, and we have since become good friends as well. Social media is more along the line of networking to promote your business. This would be like showing up to a high profile local show, talking to people, and promoting your own upcoming show. We do this on the online social platforms as well.

When I was on My Space, I had two accounts. The first was people I actually knew, and the second was an “add everybody” account. The problem with add everybody is that you start getting people who are using it as social media rather than social networking. It means that you end up adding a number of profiles that aren’t real. There is surely somebody who created the account, but they’re usually not who they say they are, and they’re not there to become friends. My Space had the Top Friends section, and at one point I’d accepted so many fake accounts that my top eight was different accounts with the same profile picture and different first names. I think I got up to five of one picture and three of another as a personal record. Those accounts tended to get reported and deleted, so it was a little difficult.

I feel like that’s starting to happen a little on Twitter now, and I only have a little over 200 followers at the time of this writing. I guess I thought it would take longer.

I got the first one relatively soon. It was just a woman. Normal picture. Normal name. But she immediately sent me a DM that made it clear that she was fishing, and that account has been the only Unfollow I’ve done so far.

I got the guy DMing me asking me for pics. I told him that I really don’t post pics to Twitter. Then a couple of weeks later, I started posting the pics that I use for my blog posts. Then I remembered that guy. Sorry, man.

I got a follow recently, and before I followed back I saw what it said, “Hey guys. I’m 18 now and want to have some fun.” Yep. The tweets on the account were all links to adult websites. This is the only account so far that I didn’t follow back.

Meanwhile, I got a follow from a CBD oil business. I followed back, because aside from Miss 18 year old who doesn’t get the idea of sleeping with guys at work, I follow everyone back. Now I seem to get a follow from a CBD oil or Cannabis sales account every other day. I’m not your target audience. Sorry. But at least they’re representing themselves as what they are, rather than some 40 year old guy claiming to be an 18 year girl wanting to have fun by sending you to adult websites that you could have found on your own. Thanks.

It’s nice to know that a decade later, nothing has changed on social platforms. I don’t know what I would have done if there hadn’t been opportunists lurking around every corner.

Chris McGinty is a blogger who used to claim that he would start a heroin habit when he was diagnosed with cancer. But hey, this whole Cannabis thing might be a better option. You know, since they don’t seem to have any interest in actually curing cancer… That’s just conspiracy theory shit. Ignore it.