Pardon me while I rant incessantly: John Mayer leaves Twitter

image courtesy of photobucket.com

My first response to this news is, “So what? I don’t follow celebrities anyway.”

I think John Mayer is an incredibly talented musician and songwriter. I also think Tim Robbins is a pretty decent actor and Kanye West is a great self-promoter.

However…

Why should it be common practice to give weight to someone’s opinion because they happen to be famous? If Mayer gave his opinion about what type of guitar he preferred or Tim Robbins shared tips on how not to piss off Susan Sarandon or Kanye West gave advice about how to avoid criminal prosecution, chances are I would pay attention. On second thought, I might not take Robbins advice about Sarandon, because apparently, that didn’t work out so well. But I digress…

I suppose one of the most beneficial things about being on Twitter if you’re a celebrity is the ability to connect with fans who might otherwise not have access to you. This can increase your fan base exponentially, especially if you actually interact with your followers a la Alyssa Milano. Even though I don’t follow her, she’s a great example of how celebrities can effectively use social media to increase their influence and endear themselves to fans.

I’m sure there are other glowing examples of how to be a great celebrity tweeter, and while I did read some pretty decent quotes from Mayer on Twitter, the majority of the ones I read were of the celebrity train wreck variety (“When that text comes through that says ‘Just thinking about you’, save yourself some time and write ‘shut the &$#@ up and come over.”) Charming, no?

I learned recently (via Twitter) that John Mayer is no longer tweeting. Which is fine–whatever. I suppose what bothers me about him leaving is his apparent need to tell everyone why he left. A recent article in USA Today quotes Mayer as follows:

“It occurred to me that since the invocation of Twitter, nobody who has participated in it has created any lasting art. And yes! Yours truly is included in that roundup as well.”

He goes on to say:

“Those who decide to remain offline will make better work than those online. Why? Because great ideas have to gather. They have to pass the test of withstanding thirteen different moods, four different months and sixty different edits. Anything less is day trading. You can either get a bunch of mentions now or change someone’s life next year.”

It seems to me that Mayer was incredibly distracted by Twitter, which is understandable. But rather than quietly bowing out and pursuing “lasting art” and “changing lives”, he makes a blanket statement about all artists. Sounds a bit like “I’m taking my ball and going home, and if you stay you’re wasting your life.” Incredibly arrogant.

I am reminded of another artist who talked about how to end a relationship:

“I don’t mind when a woman leaves me, it’s when they tell you why. Forget that, just leave.” ~ Richard Pryor

Probably not the best advice for personal relationships, but for Twitter? I think that would have sufficed. Then again, I wouldn’t be writing a blog post about him leaving if he had done so quietly. I wouldn’t have even noticed. Perhaps Kanye should get some pointers from Mayer.