Twitter for the reluctant

I'll be honest, I hate Twitter. But I do realise I have to try and embrace social media, so I'm giving it a go, along with Facebook, Pinterest, G+ and Linkedin.

Top tip: just don't tell me there are others that I simply have to be a part of, because I'm liable to spit the dummy.

Maybe it's my age and that 'grumpy old man' thing, but I don't think I'm very good at social media. I've been on Facebook for a couple of years now but, although I know the basics, most of the time it seems like it's working against me, although I'll persevere of course.

I posted a blog about trying to get my head around Pinterest a while back that included a couple of great YouTube vids for the total newbie, so if that sounds like you check it out here.

Similarly, for anyone who has no experience of Twitter but feels they really need to bite the bullet and get stuck in, I think the For Dummies page here is a good place to start.

I dislike Twitter because

• It's part of a quantity/quality cultural dumb down
• It seems to be ruining the English language
• Being limited to 140 characters is simply annoying
• The symbols and abbreviations are complicated and confusing

I used to be able to cope when emails were the only form of online contact, but these days it seems like I'm bombarded by information from every corner of the internet. A lot of the time I haven't a clue what it is or where it's really come from. Sometimes I think: Stop the world I want to get off!

But, and it's a BIG BUT, how many of us here can say we have more visitors to our websites than we really need? I know I can't, and if I don't embrace social media I'll be cutting off my nose to spite my face!