Top 10 Signs I’m Addicted to Twitter (Confessions of an Addict)

Okay…. I know it sounds over the top to people who aren’t on twitter… but for those of us who are, there are some clear signs of addiction, obsession, etc.

It’s so bad, that I felt I need to write some of it down (writing has always made things more real to me).  And since I’ve always been a fan of Letterman, I’ll do it in a top 10 list:

• I have created a category in my address book for “my tweeps.”  Other categories include family, college friends, work colleagues…  yeah, I really did that.
• My blog has lots of categories, but for some reason, “my tweeps” seems to overpower the rest of the category cloud.
• 140 characters is A LOT OF ROOM! 120 is more like it, better <100… Gotta make RTs easy!
• I now think it’s normal to write tho and thru to save letters and I only put one space after a period (punctuation is actually optional anyway!)
• I can do the 12 steps of addiction, each one in less than 140 characters.  I can tweet or recite them but haven’t moved past number 1 in action! [[Interesting trivia… the first 10 steps of the legendary program, as given on Wikipedia, are less than 140 characters anyway.  I have to wonder whether the last few on that list are longer than 140 as a test…  to see I can resist the urge to edit into tweetspeak!]]
• I’m FAR easier to get along with when flying rather than driving… unless the plane doesn’t offer wireless and then I’m raging.
• Friends enable me by telling me what I’m missing when I have to be offline.  And yes, I have offered the same assistance!
• After being away from twitter a bit, I feel absolutely out of touch like the end of the world could already be clearly forecasted and I’m going to be the last one to know.  (see previous item though… hyperventilating is overcome by the following mantra… “If true, someone would send a direct message or call.  If true, someone would send a direct message or call.  If true, someone would send a direct message or call….”)
• Real names take some searching at times, but usernames are on the tip of my tongue!
• Many of my family and friends were proud when I took classes in Russian — but most of them are simply annoyed that I can talk a totally different language — hundreds of words start with “tw” or a prefix and “tw.”
• I’m so addicted that I can’t stop with 10 cause I haven’t used a hashtag yet and what’s an addiction list without a hashtag? #fail

There are several others who should feel free to add the signs that they’ve seen in themselves, but I can only make it possible for them to feel welcome, I can’t make them step forward and acknowledge their own addiction.
All of that said, I’m going to spend far less time online for a couple of weeks, see if I get over the night sweats that come with missing all of those tweets!  (I won’t go totally cold turkey but I’m going to miss a lot & see if I can handle it.  And yes, I’m hoping someone will PLEASE let me know if the world is about to end…  a practicing addict can send a quick DM to @JPlovesCOTTON — I would sure appreciate it.  😉 )