Let's all take a second to talk about Twitter Divas.
A Twitter Diva is an icon (an actress, a singer, a talk show host, Jackee Harry) who has decided to take the next step into the tech generation and commit herself to the world of Twitter.
Some are better at it than others. For example, I'm an apple-pie-eating-good-old-fashioned American who loves Julia Roberts, so when America's Sweetheart signed up for a "Verified" Twitter account I reacted the way Whoopi Goldberg does when she first makes contact with Patrick Swayze in Ghost. Unfortunately, Julia hasn't really taken to Twitter and as of this article, has 254,752 followers and she's tweeted a total of zero times. Following Julia Roberts on Twitter is like an online Mexican standoff -- we're all just waiting on her to make a move.
However, then you've got someone like Ellen Barkin -- brilliant, beautiful, outrageous, out-spoken Ellen Barkin -- who is currently what can only be described as a Twitter Darling. Ellen Barkin has always been a national treasure for her gorgeous performances on film and stage, but her new Twitter personality is putting her into the national conversation in such a hip, different, random, beautiful way. What I love most about Twitter is getting to see an authentic and unfiltered side to someone like Ellen Barkin or Rosie or Roseanne, and even cooler having the chance to communicate directly to them.
My boyfriend, Patrick, is just as obsessive with his divas as I am. We're both daytime talk show fanatics -- basically just give us a table of opinionated women and an hour, and we're golden. The Talk, The View -- we even had The Chew on our DVR for a hot second.
Over the past year, Patrick has found himself in the audiences of all his favorite shows; we went to the second to last Oprah show, a friend got him a VIP seat at The View and this past week he went to The Talk. Patrick's dream is to be a daytime talk show host so these experiences were a once in a lifetime dream come true and in his excitement, he sent out tweets to his favorite co-hosts letting them know how excited he was to be in their presence. These weren't the first tweets he'd sent the co-hosts -- I'd venture to guess 40 percent of Patrick's tweets are directed to someone who hosts a daily television talk program between 9-5 p.m.. So when he went to these shows the co-hosts recognized him... Elisabeth Hasslebeck remembered him by name and discussed her support for gay marriage and Sheryl Underwood complimented him on his haircut, which is now different from his Twitter profile picture. Thanks to the overwhelming power of Twitter, some of his favorite celebrities stepped out of our magical television set and acknowledged him and thanked him for his continuous online kindness.
The Internet can be used for a lot of bad stuff, we can cut each other down, and say mean things about people who happen to be famous, but what it can also do is give us the power to reach out to the Twitter Divas we love, and say thank you for doing what you do and keep on doing it.
And I think that's what the Internet should be all about.
Now tweet something, @JuliaRoberts.