TW'ELEBS

I'm not sure how all the writers here on 49 met but I'm thinking the common denominator was Twitter. Those of us who are t'heads got on there to either meet new people, network with peeps in or out of their industry or find a bride from Thailand. Whatever floats your boat, right? For me I wanted to use it as a network tool but as it happens met some cool people from all over both in and out of my field.
I came across this article in the LA Times last week about actors who use twitter to 'talk' to their fans. I know there are a bunch of celeb twitterers out there and this was confirmed to me when my missus was reading one of her celeb rag mags last night and they had an article about some of these peeps. Ashton and Demi, John Mayer, Lance Armstrong, Jimmy Fallon, whoever else. I couldn't be bothered getting up and getting the mag now but you get my drift.
Now, I wouldn't be caught dead reading one of these mags because I have soooo much more important shit to be doing BUT for research purposes I 'glanced' through it. It took longer than I thought. Lots o' pictures though!
Anyway, these folks have 10, 20, 30 thousand followers so I guess for them it keeps them in touch with their fanbase and it is free market research to see how their latest movie or album is being received. As for the followers it makes them fell like the celebs are talking to them when they tweet and makes them feel accessible, I guess.
Here in LA, in particular celebs are so revered and idolised that they become more like untouchable gods so with Twitter, I think it makes them more human and 'normal'. If they tweet that they're stuck in traffic on the 405 (freeway) people can relate to that especially if they're also stuck on the 405. For me I love the interaction with new (interesting) people. I'm not looking to be one of 43,684 followers whereby you'll never have a direct conversation with them. I could care less really. Not putting anybody down but for me, I want some interaction.
I thought it was interesting to see quickly Twitter is hitting the mainstream. Apparently, Twitter had 2.6 million users in Jan. up from 178,000 last year. Pretty remarkable. I'm sure George Clooney having 1.3 mil followers has helped!
BTW, APPARENTLY Britney's new tour is going to be "off the hook" and John and Jen are celebrating their 1st anniversary, ahh!