There’s a famous line from Serenity that always reminds me of Twitter: “You can’t stop the signal.”
I’ve been a Serenity fan for quite a long time. From the moment I saw the Firefly series a few years ago, I was hooked with Joss Whedon’s witty prose and the way in which the characters wit charmed their way out of spaceship mishaps and hungry, zombies of the worst kind. In all truth? I kinda just want to marry Joss Whedon. (I’ll get in line.)
Tonight, for the first time in about 3 years, I turned on Lost. I wasn’t sure what possessed me, (besides noticing the array of dishes in my sink.) I tweeted my way through it with a few friends and thank goodness for generous insight from @dizzydj @scifi451 and @shotgunconcepts because, (no pun intended,) I was #Lost. We raved about the plot twists and as I went to tackle my earlier mentioned pile of filth that resides in my kitchen sink, I received a public message from a good friend of mine. My 5 tweets of #Lost had actually spoiled her tape delay. She wasn’t happy and I realized I had a conundrum on my hands.
I often tweet at major events. If there’s a government election, awards show, epic vote or otherwise major importance that graces our media stream? I try to be on it. Never before had I been asked to ‘hush’ for fear of ruining the surprise for someone else, and in truth: I felt a little bad about it.
I received a dm that asked me to be ‘vague‘ next time. How much more vague can you be, (SPOILER: DO NOT KEEP READING IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS. They aren’t/maybe in hell.) Welcome to the last 4 years of Lost.
I pinged a few friends to come up with a solution. I value my followers, but I get excited about tweeting things as they happen, (the journalist in me can’t help it!) I think we’ve come up with a viable alternative:
TWITTER MUTE
The ability to mute a hashtag, keyword or phrase indefinitely, or for the remainder of a television show. Twitter could even call it ”SILENCE!” you’d press a button, insert the hashtags, keywords or usernames and you can tweet, but not be affected or see what the other twitter results may be. Some versions of twitter applications have an representation of this idea- most do not.
I’ll also be hashtagging #SPOILER during future episodes of Lost, (and only Lost because frankly? Twitter is about real time media. I sat through the darn commercials.) A friend said it beautifully when he spoke, “Do folks tweeting final sports scores get criticized by those recording the game?“
Remember: Twitter is REAL time social media. Sometimes it’s wonderful to find out the news/happenings first and other times, if you’d like to wait it might be best to turn off the computer and enjoy the show.
(Entitlement) thinking the entire twitter stream stops so you can watch your show commercial free and be on twitter, too.
