Twitter holds a very dear place in my heart. I love Twitter so much that I would be prepared to ‘do a Tom Cruise’ and jump up and down on Oprah’s sofa telling you how great it is, but we all know how that worked out. The general opinion of people who don’t *get* twitter is that it is a waste of time, a procrastination device, that is used to inform the rest of the world what you had for breakfast. They would be right about the procrastination part but the breakfast part, only if they were speaking about the people who, in my opinion, don’t use twitter properly. Don’t get me wrong; I use Twitter to avoid all manner of academic work as much as the next person, but I also learn from it. For me, Twitter is like a great big party with a selection buffet of funny, intelligent and brilliant people. Obviously there are also a bunch of idiots on there, as there are everywhere in life/the world, but I want to focus on the positives. Despite all the bad press that social media devices such as Twitter receive, these sites aren’t going to go away so why not take the positives from them and embrace what they can give us. Twitter is an endlessly updating, always open, encyclopaedia of news, creativity, hilarity, joy and sadness and having the right people on your timeline can open your mind to so many things.
If it weren’t for twitter, I wouldn’t be writing for Her Campus Birmingham. Some of you may be looking to the sky & asking the universe why I had to discover Twitter, but my point is, Twitter introduced me to a world of fantastic journalism. I could not begin to count the amount of articles I have read by brilliant writers that have made me cry, chuckle to myself, full on laugh at the screen, scribble down the quotes that resonate the most. I would say 98.75% of these articles have been brought to my attention via Twitter. Reading the articles and thinking, ‘I want to BE the writer’, is what inspired me to write for this website. By no means am I stating that I am even vaguely within touching distance of the talent that these writers have, my point is that Twitter ignited a spark of creativity in me that I never thought I had.
Twitter gets the nation talking to each other. I rarely watch a TV programme now without refreshing my phone regularly to see what the opinions of my followers are. This may seem sad to someone who views this behaviour as me being surgically attached to my phone, but I enjoy the programmes so much more. Yes, I know that I should be interacting with the people sitting on the sofa with me, and I do (I’m a child of the 90’s, I can multi-task the use of an iPhone with almost anything), but, Twitter gives you a world where you can discuss ‘Made In Chelsea’ with 89 of your friends, without them talking at the wrong time so you miss the good bits. I am a nosey person, I thrive off what other people are saying about things, Twitter gives you an insight into the minds of others preventing nosey people (like me) from looking as though they are playing a never ending game of 21 questions.
So who do I follow on Twitter that provide me with the most laughs/great articles to read/interesting opinions? I have been banging on about how great and interesting my timeline is, so here’s a list of some of the people that, in my humble opinion, are of the highest Twitter quality.
For all-round Twitter greatness: Caitlin Moran (@caitlinmoran) – okay so she has nearly half a million followers therefore may not be the most original suggestion but those half a million dutifully follow for a reason. Follow for ultimate laughs, links to amazing pieces of journalism, occasional obsessing over old naked pictures of Bruce Springsteen and constant obsessing over alcohol and crisps. Oh, and she’s author of the bestselling book ‘How to be a Woman’ which is quite frankly amazing. Just follow her. You actually can’t regret it.
For the best beauty tips/products and advice: Sali Hughes (@salihughes) – Sali is a columnist for the Guardian and writes about beauty. I properly love her; if you speak to any of my friends they will already know her as ‘that beauty woman from twitter’ because I obsess about her product recommendations almost daily. Every product I have bought under Sali’s recommendation and advice has worked a treat; I could not actually live without my NARS creamy concealer (but that’s a column for another day). Sali also has a great website (salihughesbeauty.com) that includes some brilliant columnists as well as video tutorials.
For someone who seems to actually speak my thoughts: Sophie Heawood (@Heawood). In my opinion Sophie is the best type of journalist; nearly everything she writes makes me think “yep, me too!”, she asks the questions that people are quite genuinely thinking and if you ever feel the need to read some quite brilliantly written pieces of journalism look no further. Don’t believe me? Only yesterday Sophie Tweeted “ Serious question: would British straight men just prefer women to ask them out and put a stop to the dithering?” which is basically what every single girl in Birmingham has been asking for a long time. I could write a whole article about all the great things Sophie has written, but follow her and discover them.
A couple of other Twitter souls that shouldn’t be ignored: @incrediblyrich (funny, funny, funny, just hilarious), @gracedent (yet more amazing columns), @dollyalderton (says a lot of very real things).