Wednesday, May 29, 2019

@joshgroban leaving Twitter -- again

I joined Twitter because of him. I think it was 2010. I was a Grobanite. Josh was on Twitter. He didn't have that many followers. He tweeted me fairly often. I don't remember how often. Maybe it was more than twenty?

I came to see that he was a voracious speed reader. He sometimes spied on us talking about him. 

We knew he tended to come in at midnight California time, so we would hang around on Twitter then, because we knew he'd be more likely to see our responses if we responded right away. We chatted while waiting. He was likely listening. 

There was a group called Groban Tweeters, or something like that. I got added to it. Some of us suspected that he started the group to monitor is. 

He was funny. There was at least one article recommending following him for the humor. 

He did vlogs where he talked to us. He seemed like a regular guy. 

I came to think of him as almost a friend. I tweeted him a lot more often than he tweeted me. I sent him links to stuff that I thought would interest

Over time he got a lot more followers. He stopped tweeting me. 

Still he often live tweeted major events, like major TV shows. 

I didn't stop tweeting him. It was a habit. I thought of it as a conversation. He didn't always answer, but I knew he was paying attention. Or, if he wasn't paying attention, his manager was, but usually it was him. 

Then he experimented with leaving Twitter. I suspected he would be back. I was pretty sure he was just as addicted as we were. He came back. 

I suspected also that those days when he put out a lot of funny tweets that he was blowing off steam after a fight with a girlfriend. 

But he kept tweeting that Twitter was making him miserable and his therapist wanted him to stop. 

Now he says he's leaving again. 

I get it. Twitter is a rough place. People are often unkind. 

But if he's not there, should I still follow him? Should I still tweet him? Should I be on Twitter at all? (Well I've got two other Twitter id's for other purposes. 

I did adopt my #QuixoticQuest as part of my Twitter identity. That was supposed to be my mission here other than the vapid desire to commune with a singer I was obsessed with. 

I'm feeling frustrated with the #QuixoticQuest now, though. It was inspired my Michael Jackson and now everyone thinks he was a pedophile. I blogged about that recently. I'm undecided as to whether I believe the allegations, but they predominate the public consciousness about Michael Jackson. 

Also I'm not sure a single world anthem is necessarily the solution now. Maybe the sharing of music that's going on on YouTube is sufficient. 

Tho a world anthem might still serve a purpose. 

I've found others to communicate with on Twitter. I've met other fans. I've communicated with other performers. But of my first reason for being there is gone, should I just turn around and leave. Should I unfollow him?

I've certainly had my complaints about him over the years. I consider myself more of a #glambert than a #grobanite now. 

At least one fan thinks his ambivalent attitude towards fans on Twitter is such a turnoff that she thinks he should be unfollowed. 


I don't know. Maybe I'm part of why he's miserable. Maybe I should unfollow him?

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