The Natural Social Leveling of Twitter

In Twitter Users Not So Social After All, it’s reported by web security firm Barracuda Networks that:

As of December 2009, only 21% of Twitter account holders were what Barracuda defines as “true users,” meaning someone who has at least 10 followers, follows at least 10 people and has tweeted at least 10 times.

I find that fascinating and a bit reassuring. Most people are followers in life. They go with convention. They are somewhat curious and maybe a little voyeuristic. That’s the way of things. They don’t want to rock any boats (certainly not the one that they are in), especially if they can’t do it anonymously. That’s where the rest of us come in.

Now, I’m no one of any great significance. I’m not in the media. I’m not on the cutting edge of innovation. I’m just a bloke stumbling along like most everyone else. And yet, I’m in that top 1/5 referred to by Barracuda. As my web sites show (even more than my Twitter presence), I’m not all that shy about voicing an opinion on the ‘net. The “squeaky wheel gets the grease” and all that.

But I understand the other side. It took me well into my twenties to really get a handle on giving myself a voice. High functioning Asperger’s served me well in terms of focusing on problems I was interested in as I was growing up, but it left me wanting in terms of being able to give voice to what was in my head. I had to deliberately study and practice how to do that. Some things worked. Some things didn’t. But I wanted that voice.

On that journey, I realized that most people don’t want to shout from the mountain tops. They don’t want for more than a select group to notice they are there. There’s safety in that anonymity. I don’t blame them at all. There are ramifications to attracting attention to yourself.

In general, we watch the ones willing to risk public failure. That’s a very real consequence when you put yourself out there. Some crash and burn, sometimes with tragic literalness. But some don’t. They become the voices for those who can’t shout. Some might even become leaders–for better or worse.

So, when I see that 80(-ish) percent of Twitter users aren’t jumping into active participation, I think that’s just fine. There are no leaders without followers. There is no communication if there’s no one to listen. And let’s be honest, just because someone is in that participatory fifth, that doesn’t mean that they are leading or saying anything worth listening to. But some are. Over time, the listeners gravitate to them. And that’s as it should be. There is power in that.