So what?

OK. I know it's Bill Gates. This time, the Bill Gates -- authenticated and everything. Not the 10 interlopers claiming to be Bill Gates that have been on Twitter for some time. I know there have been thousands of tweets announcing his arrival and there seems to be a palpable buzz in the Twitterverse now that he's here. Even more so than when Oprah came on board.

In fact, within two days, the real Bill Gates amassed a following of 265,690 people, which takes even the most popular of Tweeters a lifetime to achieve. (And another almost thousand more in the time it took to write this blog.)

But I'm not one of them.

Why? Because he doesn't follow back. Sure, he's following 40 people -- a list that includes  Ashley Tisdale, Queen Rania, Ryan Seacrest, Ashton Kutcher, a few major media, and a dozen or more Foundations and Charitable organizations.

I guess I'm old school and still stuck on the notion that Twitter is a social medium in which people share ideas and information, say something about what they're doing, make connections with one another, and as the crisis in Haiti recently demonstrated, engage in issues that matter.

I'm not a fan of Twitter as a way to carry out one-way broadcasting -- which is why, with the exception of following media outlets, I don't follow people who there is no possibility of following me back. I'm not saying I'm a proponent of people following me back uncritically.  I'm OK with people looking through some tweets to ensure I'm not too trite or a bit boring, possibly pedantic, or utterly uninteresting -- or just on the basis that I've been known to overuse alliterations.

I'm holding out for dialogue and discussion. And on the best day, I like to flatter myself by thinking that even though I'm not a celebrity, i too might have something to say.