Written by ContentPowered.com
Social media has become an indispensable part of everyday modern life. Nearly all computer and smartphone users manage multiple relationships on several platforms, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter, among others. Each has its attractions, allowing users to collect friends, reach back into the past to find those with whom they’ve lost touch, post pictures of family vacations, discuss the weather or follow celebrities. How did we ever get along without these easy methods of social interaction?
Twitter is one of the easiest and most popular social media platforms to use. Tweeting photos and brief messages of 140 characters or less is quick and fun, and carrying on multiple conversations around the world in real time can be highly addictive. You may soon find yourself collecting followers for the sake of collecting, and looking for new ways to increase your popularity in cyber space. Some people (politicians in particular) have even been known to buy blocks of followers or hire public relations firms to increase their numbers and boost their following in the all-important youth demographic.
Too Much Traffic
Think about your local coffee shop. When was the last time you stopped in for a cappuccino or latte and saw people at the tables, actually talking to one another? Chances are, you’ve ordered your coffee in an eerie silence. Everyone around you is tapping on smartphone screens or zipping through their messages on laptops. It’s the same thing in schools, on the street, and even at your local movie theater. How many times have you watched a movie and been distracted by the bright glow of smartphone screens in the seats in front of you? Many of them are on Twitter, which has a whopping 645 million users, with 135,000 new users signing up each day. One billion tweets are sent every five days, and that’s a whole lot of “noise.” While Twitter is a great, economical way to send or receive a short message, you can find yourself overwhelmed by useless information that intrudes on your private time, interrupts your entertainment and distracts you from goals.
Cyber Stalking Is On the Rise
Twitter is a wonderful platform for casual interaction, but what happens when someone you don’t know or don’t like decides to follow you? It’s estimated that 40 percent of Twitter users don’t tweet, they just watch. Like many Facebook users, they monitor the flow of the messages of others without participating themselves. This behavior can be mildly creepy, such as when someone you barely know is tracking your activities. It can be an invasion of privacy, such as a grandparent or parent following a grown grandchild, or an employer monitoring the message feed of an employee to make sure company secrets aren’t being given away. It can also be a scary behavior. No one wants a jealous ex-lover or spouse checking up on them, especially if your relationship with them was abusive.
Twitter, like Facebook, can be used to hurt people, and you don’t want to be on the receiving end of that category. A vindictive person can use social media to damage your reputation, spread lies, hurt your current relationships or even cost your your job by tweeting or posting private pictures and stories. If you sense a threat like this, it’s definitely time to take action!
How to Block Someone on Twitter
Blocking someone on social media can be a tricky process, technically and personally. Some social media platforms make it technically difficult to manage privacy settings and block unwanted contacts. There’s always something in the fine print or an IP address lookup that gets missed.
On the other hand, we don’t want to offend our old high-school acquaintances, even though we’re tired of hearing what they had for breakfast. We don’t want to get fired from our jobs, but we definitely don’t want supervisors viewing our beach photos online. We love our parents, but we don’t want them looking over our shoulders every minute.
On Twitter, the process is incredibly easy. From your account, simply go to that person’s profile, click on their picture icon, and choose “Block” from the drop-down menu. That’s all you have to do!
Will They Know They’re Blocked?
Once you’ve blocked a user, they can’t see your profile picture anymore. They won’t be able to follow you, see you on their time line or add you to any of their endless lists. Unlike some other sites, Twitter won’t send a notification to that user to tell them they’ve been banished from your life. They’ll know because they can no longer see your pictures, read your feed or communicate with you via the site.
If they’re not a stalker, they’ll soon get over the hurt. One of the great things about Twitter is that the contact isn’t as personal as some other social media platforms are. Can you imagine “unfriending” someone on FaceTime? A blocked Twitter user will only know they’re blocked if they care enough to pay attention.
On the other hand, if they are a stalker, then blocking them from your Twitter feed is only one of many things you should be doing to protect yourself and your information from meddling and harm!
What Should You Do Now?
Enjoy the silence! You’ve taken an important step toward simplifying your life and protecting your privacy. In the case of Mom and Dad, have a conversation if you haven’t already done so. Chances are, they’ll understand why you don’t want them checking up on every small part of your day. For acquaintances you haven’t seen in 20 years or people you don’t even know, it’s a lot easier. Likely, a good many of those people aren’t even going to notice they’ve been blocked. They don’t know you that well, and the best outcome is that they’ll also be relieved that they no longer need to keep up with you. If they do have a problem with your blocking them or want to express their hurt feelings, there’s always snail mail and telephones for actual personal contact. Chances are good though, that this will never happen.
It Doesn’t Have to Be Forever
Most people you block from your Twitter profile will never be heard from again. If you have a sudden regret about blocking someone or find that you miss them now that they’re gone, never fear. It’s easy to reinstate a person on your Twitter feed. If they haven’t blocked you in turn, just go to their profile and reverse the blocking process, using the same steps described above: click on their profile picture, choose “Unblock” from the drop-down menu, and they’re back in your cyber life!
A Few Less Tweets
Approximately 9,100 tweets are sent every second, and with 115 million unique users every month, Twitter is bound to be around for a long time to come. Enjoying social media means never letting it overwhelm you or damage your real, day-to-day relationships. Now that you know how to block someone from your Twitter profile, you’ll receive fewer robo-tweets and fewer messages from virtual strangers. Stalkers won’t be able to follow you, and the relationships that mean the most to you will get the attention they deserve!
