One of the things I like most about working in the email space is that as of 2009, being an email user is entirely label-free. When you give someone your email address, it doesn’t drag along a laundry list of negative connotations or misleading assumptions about who you are as a person. An email user therefore is given a tabula rasa—a clean slate—that gradually takes on the character of the contents within the inbox.

Now compare that perception with your initial reaction upon hearing a new acquaintance say, “you can find me on Twitter.”

Of course, with any new technology there is always going to be the knee-jerk reaction that any early-adopter is probably a geek. But let’s disregard that perception for now—as any mobile phone user now knows, giving out your cell phone number today does not send out images of the Zack Morris brick phone the same way it did in say, 1990. Once a technology becomes mature, the geek argument becomes moot. But think about the other stereotypes that come with saying “you can find me on Twitter” to someone you have just met, and then consider the obvious negative implications that someone might draw from it:

• You have enough interesting and/or important things to say in 140 characters or less that this person should be happy to receive all of your updates in real-time…
• By that logic, you consider yourself an interesting and/or important person…
• You are very concerned with how many people are “following” you…
• You are an egotist.

Obviously, this string of stereotypes is an unfair characterization to draw without getting to know someone first. But here’s the problem I see facing the Twitter community: there is some significant truth to these conclusions.

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