why I’m unfollowing @barackobama

why I’m unfollowing @barackObama: a social contract broken.

It’s in sad contrast to this hope I felt watching astonished through the morning of President Obama’s swearing in ceremony, that I now am going to unfollow @barackObama.

Quite simply put:

• it’s not Barack tweeting
• it’s boring, impersonal news from the DNC

While I understand that it may be some type of national security risk for the man himself to be tweeting,

“Michelle, Sasha, and I are having a great game of croquet on the South Lawn…”

I honestly have to admit that it’s a little bit of what I expected when I followed @barackObama.

I expected that, because that’s what Twitter is for.

Let’s be clear, I haven’t gone out and renounced my faith in the man or the President, I’m just really disappointed in what his twitter feed is delivering to me. Instead of the more personal, timely communication, tweets can deliver, today I got this tweet from Obama,

“With tonight’s Senate vote on Wall St. reform, we’re a step closer to protecting consumers & our economy, and holding big banks accountable.”

Blarg, whatever.

To be sure, this is a great message, but ultimately not why I’m into Twitter. Perhaps you noticed how I phrased the intro, “today I got this tweet from Obama”, as if this had been whispered to me in passing down a long hallway.

A quick visit to @barackObama clears up my confusion:

This Twitter account is run by Organizing For America, the grassroots organization for President Obama’s agenda for change. To follow the Whitehouse Twitter account, go to: Twitter.com/whitehouse

OFA is a special project of the Democratic National Committee.

There’s frequent references to “I” and “we”, which implies that it’s actually Obama doing the tweeting but instead of an inside view into the life of the president, I get a recounting of news which someone else is implying that Barack himself would be interested in. There’s also a problem here where someone is speaking with the voice of a public figure, and in a sense, impersonating them.

To quote more intelligent folks than myself, “ur doin it wrong”.

And that’s sad.

(Because, seriously, how awesome would it be to see pictures of the dog, and drawings from the fridge, and to hear Obama complaining about Mondays, how lame the American Idol contestants are, and how much he could totally eat a cookie right now?)

Advertisement