Top 10 Signs You Might Need a "Twittervention"

1. You type "@" before names in e-mail, blog comments and data fields.
2. Your written communications have become extremely short.  140 characters or less.
3. You change your Twitter avatar at least 3-5 times a week.
4. You don't use your phone to make calls anymore.
5. Your blog hasn't been updated in weeks/months.
6. You check your Twitter account daily/hourly to see if you have new "followers".
7. New followers = euphoria while no new followers sets off mild depression.
8. You tell your friends to just "Twitter it" to you.
9. You experience panic attacks if Twitter is down for more than an hour.
10. You experience "Twitter remorse" due to having a high number of updates, but still can't stop doing it.

Comments

[Ike]

11. You arrived at this post via a link that had snurl, tinyurl, or is.gd in it.

[vaspers aka steven e. streight]

You are spot on.

Twitter Addiction is a dependency problem of tragic dimension. The only cure is to delete your account, like I did, but as you know, I had a relapse and I'm back on the stuff.

[mack collier]

"You type "@" before names in e-mail, blog comments and data fields."

This is probably the biggest sign. And Ike's right, you would have never found this post without a link from Twitter ;)

[rudeboy]

damn :(

[Kristen]

Great list. I don't think I need intervention just yet but I know some who do.

[B.L Ochman]

12. When you should be sleeping, you twitter instead.
13. when you come in from an evening out, you check twitter to see what everyone else has been doing and make sure you haven't missed any big news.

[Warren]

14. You watch events (like the Super Bowl or Academy Awards) on TV so you can twitter them. Then you spend more time twittering than watching the event.

15. You give everything hashtags #Armano

[Tara]

16. You have referred in to your officemate in spoken word as "at Barbara." (it only happened once, I promise)

17. You read this post and realize you are under-leveraging Twitter and immediately resolve to watch more pop culture events so you can Twitter them.

[Kristin Gorski (KG)]

18. You have stopped watching big TV events like the Super Bowl, political debates, and the Oscars because you'd rather just follow the tweets about the TV events --- the tweets are more entertaining.

(This list is ROFL-hilarious, BTW.)

[Sarah]

I don't know or care how many followers I have, but I do experience euphoria and mild depression related to whether someone favorites a tweet of mine or not. You do subscribe to the RSS feed of http://favotter.matope.com/en/user.php?user=[you], don't you?

[Kate Olson]

19. You no longer communicate with people not on twitter - if they don't get your tweets, they don't hear from you....

Have decided I need a twittervention ASAP

[Whitney Hess]

20. You use three or more chat/text message shorthands in one tweet: http://www.netlingo.com/emailsh.cfm

SADAD has to be my favorite

[Mark Dykeman]

21. You no longer use your RSS feeder - Twitter is the source of all updates and all news.

22. You've worn out the F5 button on your keyboard.

23. You get more messages from Twitter in your IM software then you get from actual people.

[Ryan Karpeles]

24. You keep getting dirty looks when you tell people you're 'following' them.

[Tony:Frosty]

#25 You constantly rearrange and edit (in your head) your thoughts or observations so that they are less than 140 characters.

[Kara Soluri]

This is bad. I now fall asleep with @ signs dancing on an ever-updating twitter feed. I can see the words and the names and the intricately woven connections.

In the 80's, it was tetris blocks, so clearly this is improvement.

[tankboy]

Um, is this a cry for help?

[DA]

@tankboy it most certainly is. Oh look, I made my comment in less than 140 characters! :-)

[WorshipCity]

#26. You type a blog post about Twittering and wait anxiously watching your Twitbin to show you that Twitterfeed has uploaded your Twitter account of the update on your new post about Twittering...and then smile with glee :)

[bunnyhero]

when twitter goes down, your first impulse is to twitter about it, but of course you can't.

[B.L Ochman]

#27 - Twitter is down again. Why bother staying online.

[Paula Thornton]

This is different than the issues Mark Hurst brings up in Bit Literacy (although admittedly, I've not read the book, so jump in Mark...).

This is the means by which we use personal economic filters and just how significantly we are social creatures.

[Adam Snider]

You type "@" before names in e-mail, blog comments and data fields.

I did this before I started using Twitter, though, as a way to make clear who I was responding to, as I tend to respond to multiple people at a time when I reply to comments on my blog.

[Benjamin Bloom]

28. You ask someone, immediately after learning his/her name "who are you on twitter?"

[Shannon]

Dang! And I thought I came up with the word Twitter-vention. I totally used that term several times today.

I meet all of your criteria. Someone call Dr. Drew!

[SpilltoJill]

it is all true....so true

[JPH]

Funny, and on target. Although this one -- "2. Your written communications have become extremely short." -- has been much appreciated by some of my coworkers.

[Kris]

Dude! You are so busting my chops with this one. How about these additions:

-- you have more than 3 twitter accounts for various business ventures, okay, more than 5 (okay, honestly I currently have 6)

-- when twitter updates the interface and you don't like it, you redesign the interface because the twitter api is oh, so, wonderful (Twitterface will launch soon)

-- you get annoyed when you are upstairs, husband is downstairs, and he won't participate in twitter to make communication easier

-- your friends, clients and biz partners "ping you" on twitter with info, and you realize they have figured out you will see messages there faster than you will in email!

-- hours pass before you realize you haven't even checked email, and there might be something important there

I could go on and on, but I've been here too long... have to get back on twitter and tell you I found this post & responded!

[Demian Farnworth]

Classic. Might add:

...going to the bathroom or the shed or under your crawl space to Twitter...

..."unfollowing" people who tick you off...

[Patricia Garcia]

Which reminds me, I need to change my avatar.

[Adam Gershenbaum]

Here's one of my own"

-you start using twitter as a search engine.

When it comes to certain topics, I turn to search.twitter.com before going to Google.

" Your written communications have become extremely short." -- has been much appreciated by some of my coworkers."

That's true! The other day a coworker said to me "...and your emails are always short and to the point." BUAHAHA.

My boss asked me if I emailed him a link to an article I was reading, I said no but I tweeted it!

[Jay Ehret]

You being putting the letters "Tw" in front of existing words to see if you can create new Twitter words.

[Gerald Weber SEO Tips Blog]

I'm pretty sure I need a Twittervention. Ha ha! Funny article. :-)

[Liz]

I've seen other lists like this for "Twitterholics". They all apply to me!

[Rich Nadworny]

We should find out a way to meld Twittervention and Twintervention.

I agree 100%