What’s in a Number?

I’ve been a little annoyed lately with some of the posts that are coming through on my Twitter stream.  To me, this has been a great source of inspiration and connectivity for me.  I use it as such and really appreciate the fact that folks I have chosen to follow give so freely of their thoughts, resources, and particularly the time to do it.

Of annoyance lately are the comments that folks have about users or their numbers.  Comments like “I have 2000 followers” or “I’m worried about having 666 followers” or “If you don’t say something to me, I’m going to stop following you” or “I hate people that have an auto-DM when you follow them”.

In the beginning, it was mildly amusing, but it seems to becoming more and more prevalent.  I’m not sure why and I’m not sure why I even care or get so annoyed.  It seems to me that if you focus or get distracted by these sorts of things, they get in the road of what it’s all about.

By its nature postings are very public and, unless you protect them, open for the world to see and garner conversations and inspiration from them.  They’re searchable, postable to other services, but most importantly are the temperature of the human community at that moment in time.  Over time, your legion of friends and followers will evolve to be what you allow it to be.  I’m just concerned that things are becoming a spitting match to get more or reduce numbers for the sake of numbers.

Then, into the fray yesterday, comes a new service to promote the importance of numbers.  Mr. Milestone will send you a Tweet when you reach certain numbers of followers.

If this service catches on, my little annoyance might just get to be more than just “little”.   I just hope that I’m able to find and create a network that’s mostly about discussions and inspiration rather than building, commenting, and complaining about numbers.

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