Monday, 29 April 2013

How To Survive On Black Twitter



Yes, Black twitter. Black twitter is the community of young black people who are regular users of twitter. These users refer to it as “the twitter streets”, and everybody who is anybody knows everybody in the neighbourhood (tweighbourhood?). The term “black twitter” was coined by one twelebrity or the other and it stuck.

Black twitter is truly a magical tworld to tweet in. All types of topics, serious and light-hearted, local and international, relevant and extremely-insignificant-but-so-hilarious are discussed.
As one would expect though, black twitter can be a very rough ‘hood. Often, one twerson can find themselves in the wrong side of town with the wrong crowd, and this can lead to bullying and all sorts of chirps. This isn’t ideal.
This is how to avoid such instances.


. Become a fan of Twelebs.
The most essential rule to making it on black twitter is to make nice with the twelebrities. Either that, or stay far away. “Twelebs?” You ask, “What are those?” Allow me to explain. The loyal twerson (note here that I do not use the term “twit”) knows that twitter is like a whole new virtual world – a tworld if you may – and each community in this world has its own virtual twelebrities. That is, ordinary individuals like you and I who create superhuman twitter personalities that become famous. Of course, fame is measured in retweets and fortune by way of follower count.

Now, black twitter has a number of twelebs, made famous by their wit, their mean-streak or by just being shamelessly controversial. They move in circles, run in clicks, and they all follow each other. Tweet anything that they do not like or agree with and these boys and birds will chirp you. And the whole black twitter community will virtually laugh at you with such vigour and cyber mirth that you will take a serious blow to the twego. “Kwaaaaaa” “hahahhahhahaha” “tltltltltllt” “waagagaga!” and “:’’’’’’D” are the few ways amongst many that tweeps will let you know that they are laughing at you. Hard.


2. No Engrish, please!
Once again, an explanation is warranted. “Engrish” is a term coined on black twitter to refer to tweople who tweet in broken English. This phenomenon is most prevalent in black twitter societies as there are many black people who assert that “English is not their mother’s tongue”, as one Engrish-speaker confidently stated.

Engrish is a crime of the first degree in the black twitter community, and you know by now that it is not safe in those twitter streets. One Engrishy offence and you will become the target. And yes, twelebs will be the ones to point out and spread your failed attempt at perfect sentence-construction like wildfire. Of course, in efforts to comply with the first rule, the rest of the community will jump on the bandwagon and soon your mentions will be flooded with RT’s upon RTs of kwaaaaaa, haaaahahahaha, waagagagaga, :’’’’’’’D, tltltlttltltl, and the like. Keep a dictionary close.


3. Beware of the munch.
Screenmuncher is a blackberry application which allows a BB wielding fame-monger to “munch” and save whatever they see on their screen as a picture. “So? What’s the big deal?” I hear you asking. Oh, you have no idea how rough these twitter streets are. Let me explain with a scenario:
New Guy on Black Twitter follows Popular Tweleb Girl on twitter. Naïve and well-meaning NGBT sends PTG a direct message – those fateful DMs – professing his twitter crush and other things to her. PTG, seeing the perfect opportunity to gain more popularity through dragging NGBT’s handle in the dirt, munches her screen with his message on it. PTG smiles wickedly as she hears that menacing “schrummmunch” sound as Screenmuncher does its evidence-collecting thing. PGT then twit-pics the munch of NGBT professing his undying love – and other things – to her with a taunting hash tag along the lines of #SMH or #TheThirst.

RT. RT. RT. RT. Kwaaaaaaa. Hahahhahaha. Waaagagaggaga. Tltltltltltlltl. :”””D.
Now you understand.

4. Show face.
Not having an avatar of yourself, which means you have the default twitter “egg” picture as your avatar, is the fastest way to falling victim to the preying twelebs. As an egg-avatar twerson, your opinion is automatically irrelevant and you are by default the butt of all yolks – I mean, jokes. Egg-avatars are black twitter’s common enemy. Avoid this and you won’t be left egg-faced. At least, not until you break rules one to three. In which case, you know, Kwaaaaaaaa.



Written by: Sibabalwe Mona

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