The Stephen Fry Thing - Part 2

For those that missed it here is Part 1.  It wasn't called Part 1.  I didn't know there would be a Part 2.  This is like Star Wars eh?

Stephen Fry responded to the Observer article last Thursday on his website and it's a fairly robust defence of his comments and how they had been taken out of context.  No real surprises to be honest.

What I found interesting was insight into how a celebrity deals with their twitter feed.  Or at least how Stephen Fry says he deals with his twitter feed.  I can only imagine what his @ reply looks like on a daily basis, if he has the Boxcar app he must be a constantly vibrating mass of Fryness.  He probably has the Boxcar app.

That he says he ducks out, and ignores the sympathy tweets is understandable but the angry ones?  I reckon he reads those.  I would.  I have.  It's not easy being in the middle of a shit storm, even a minor one and we've all (if we've been on Twitter a while) experienced that and how intense it can feel.  But we answer back.  We bite.  Fry doesn't he walks away for a few days and then whilst on a plane (the lucky git) he sits and types something out that responds in as dignified a manner as possible.  There were a couple of tweets that he deleted pretty much straight away that showed how upset he really was and those of us that were on saw them.  

I think what's interesting is how Fry uses Twitter under its original guise as a micro blogging site.  I follow a few that do the same or have a gift for the funny that mean they don't @ reply very often but for the rest of us it's really a massive chat room where all our communities interlink and fragment, dispersing our thoughts and ideas in big blob of joyous freedom.  Sort of.  

Of course Fry does occasionally @ reply and even once in a while favourite.  *Looks at @Rickharwood*  For the most part though he's happy to use it as a 140 character blog.  Could I ever do the same?  I don't think so.  I couldn't follow so many that my following stream was too hectic to keep up with and my @ reply column needs to be manageable too.  I wonder where the breaking point with that in terms of followers is?  I have to engage though, that's the primary reason.

So anyway, Fry cleared the air, at least for anyone with even the mildest liberal tendencies and made his come back on Twitter at the same time, probably avoiding those pesky @ replies welcoming him back or taking the piss out of yet another overly dramatic 'Bye bye' and instant return

I'm glad he didn't become a Qwitter.  He can go back to boring me now. ;)