Why only little birds should twitter freely

My current musical hero is James Arthur. I love the passion he brings to his music. He's a talented singer/songwriter who bought much needed kudos to the jaded XFactor and his eponymous debut album  consolidated these talents and proved he is definitely not from the Cowell bland hit factory. 

Unfortunately his Twitter talents have let him down. 

So many have fallen at the Twitter hurdle, most recently Peaches Geldof, who tweeted the names of women involved in the infamous Ian Watkins case. 

Tweet in haste, repent at leisure, as many tweeters have learnt to their cost when presented with court writs.  

It's only a max of 125 characters, but even this small amount can land the writer in more hot water than a Turkish bath.  

When writing anything on social media, the writer should then become the most thorough proofreader that ever existed. After all, their words are going to be recorded for posterity, for all to see. Anything that could be construed as offensive to an individual or group of people will almost certainly come back to bite them in the bum. And if the writer is famous, the more followers they will have and therefore the more potential for offending someone. And the more potential for alienating fans. 

James Arthur got into a rap battle with a rapper on Twitter.  He ended up calling this rapper an "effing queer".  He has since apologised, saying the word 'queer' was used loosely as part of a rhyme and that he didn't mean it as an homophobic slur.  However, it has been reported that he has lost fans through this and many gay groups are up in arms.  There is even a Facebook campaign trying to get ITV to stop him appearing on the XFactor this Sunday. 

The result of this is that his management have banned him from Twitter, handing his social media communication to the capable but corporately bland hands of his record label's PR team.  Which is sad, as James was one of the few stars who used social media to engage with his fans - hell, he even re tweeted one of my tweets, and I also noticed that if fans asked him to follow them, he would do, seemingly without hesitation.  Twitter will be a dull place without him but misplaced words can unwittingly hurt so many. 

Social media may have brought the world together, but it also has the power to tear us apart.  Think before you tweet!  

Are you chick lit or high brow?

Have you ever thought you might be like a literary character?

For you it might be Jane Austen's Emma or the tragic Cathy from Bronte's Wuthering Heights or even Ibsen's Hedda Gabler? 

For me, it's Bridget Jones.

Ok ok there are loads of differences: for a start I'm happily married and have been for 10 years now (to the same man) but like our Bridget, I had to kiss a lot of frogs first. 

And I don't have any children (re: Mad About the Boy) but have a house full of dogs (unlike Bridget whose first real encounter with a dog ended up with her nearly drowning it in friend's swimming pool). 

And I love fashion and can put an outfit together a darn sight better. 

So why am I like her?

Well firstly I'm very easily distracted: am writing this whilst cooking and have just realised I've forgotten to put the chops under the Georgie Foreman and everything else is now ready!!! Now that is very Bridget!

Also, Yahoo always gets me - I log onto the computer with every intention of doing some work but am instantly ambushed with Yahoo's front page and lots of pics and enticing stories to read. Two hours later am still reading the soap spoilers but now also have encyclopedic knowledge of boy bands and how to cook the perfect shepherd's Pie. But pages of work done: 0. 

We also share the same handbag. Well not literally - that would be weird! But whenever her phone goes off, usually during important meetings, she can never locate it as it's fallen to the bottom of her bag and she has to wade through bits of cheese and Sylvanian bunnies to retrieve it.

Well that always happens to me, minus the cheese and bunnies - I usually have to plough through bits of chocolate, old train tickets and dog poo bags! And like Bridge, usually the most embarrassing contents of bag i.e the dog poo bags (empty and unused hasten to add) always end up flying out and to my mortification have bits of melted choc stuck to them which looks really, really bad!

But going back to the fashion thing, I have a wardrobe full of clothes thanks to my ahem, *whispers guiltily* shopping habit, and whilst this makes me nothing like Bridget Jones, it does make me resemble another chick-lit chick - one Rebecca Bloomwood of the Shopaholic series.

It's not looking good for me is it?