I don't like facebook much, actually. In fact, I only have a personal account, run 2 pages (My Jane Austen Book Club and Fly High Maria Grazia's Blog) and am involved in I-can't-remember-how-many groups. Quite incoherent, is it? Still, I don't like it very much. I must admit I prefer Twitter, though someone told me I don't use it as it is supposed to be used, meaning: to socialize. I just connect, post my links and, from time to time, read what the ones on my "people I like" list have tweeted in the latest hours. Then I may retweet, if I like. Who's in that list? Well, it is private, not meant to be shared, sorry. I bet you can imagine a few names if you check whose tweets I more often favorite. I've got this awkward feeling of "not liking but not being able to stay away" from social networks, which I can't really understand or analyze.However, today's news is that, despite my controversial feelings and my feeble intentions to join the "slow motion movement", I go on wasting a considerable amount of my free time surfing the Net and using social media. The latest example of my incapacity to slow down is the fact that I created a facebook page for this blog, FLY HIGH! just two days ago. If you fancy have a look and like it, I'll even be glad and feel honoured.
RICHARD ARMITAGE HAS A TWITTERThis awkward wanting to stay away was a feeling also Richard Armitage (The Hobbit, Spooks, North and South) has been experiencing for long. He stayed away since his career got to its taking off with a dramatic crash of a BBC chatline, where his fans gathered in flocks after watching him as Mr Thornton in the mini-series North and South (2004). He resisted and resisted strenuously, as a real warrior (see Thorin Oakenshield or John Porter), fighting against any temptation, except for sudden, rare but always enthusiastically acclaimed giving-in moments (see messages to the fans).
All his fellow actors have been joining twitter or facebook and he, instead, has been shying away and insisting on in his hermitage.
Only that - surprise, surprise! - he surrendered about 24 hours ago: he made up his mind and, on his 43rd birthday (22nd August, hence yesterday), he decided to give, instead of receiving, a very precious gift, something his fans or well-wishers, as he loves to call them, have been asking from him and expecting for years: he joined twitter and posted a picture of himself blowing a candle on a birthday cake! Many knowing his utmost discretion believed it impossible and waited to see if that was just another fake account, but after 24 hours he has got ... just wait one sec, I'm off to check the updated number ... 16, 600 followers. Not bad, isn't it?
What did he write to describe himself in his twitter profile?
Moody Actor, Anti-Socialite.....Thorin Oakenshield
Irony is his forte, we may fairly say. Anyway, all his fans in the twitterverse welcomed him incredulously and enthusiastically. We (yes, of course, me too!) are all very happy for this definitely unexpected birthday gift. It takes a very thoughtful, caring, generous, sensitive gentleman to donate instead of receive on one's own birthday. So, what can we sinally say? Bless you, Richard (since you prefer it to a banal thank you) and best wishes for the year to come. Looking forward to your next tweets and roles!
Very easy final quiz: try to guess at least one name in my "people I like" list on twitter.
