For a person who lives with their phone in their hand all day or near the computer, Twitter is possibly in their daily vocabulary and a part of their day to day life.
Twitter is not just a social media website but has become a way of keeping up with current events when it comes to news, activities, sports, celebrities, etc. If you are interested in something, there is a good chance you can follow others on Twitter keeping up with your interest as well. In many ways, Twitter is what a person makes it because Twitter has been formed by millions of people around the world.
I am a big Twitter user, a fan of Twitter you might say. I’m addicted to Twitter. I admit it.
Anybody that deals with me on a regular basis, has gotten the lecture on how great Twitter is and how they should at least give it a try to see if they like it.
However, for the last 24 hours (and counting) my Twitter account has for some reason been suspended. I have been a Twitter user since early 2008. I have never really had to email anyone from Twitter or had any issues with them but I have had plenty of good things to say about this free service.
Yesterday, when I realized my account had been suspended, that came as a complete shock. I have heard of this happening to others and it is usually for reasons of breaking Twitter policies which I avoid. I have heard of people going to “Twitter Jail” maybe due to getting into heated conversations with other users or for a variety of reasons, more like a “time out” but I have never had an issue.
So, I looked around at what I should do. I hadn’t received an email from them saying anything about suspending my account, just had a big red block on my Twitter page.
It stated, “This account is currently suspended. If we have suspended your account mistakenly, please let us know. See Suspended Accounts for more information.”
So, I figured, I’d start there. I read over everything and still couldn’t figure out why my account was suspended? I found an email address to email my “issue” to so I decided to start there.
First, I had to read up on why accounts are suspended to make sure I hadn’t done anything making this my fault.
Then, I decided to send out an email to suspended@twitter.com When an email is sent, you automatically get a response with a ticket number and some information to read over which lets you know possible reasons for suspension and tells you to reply to the email depending on what you feel. So, after reading their automated reply email, I replied to the part that says I really didn’t understand why my account had been suspended but I certainly never wanted to or had I felt that I had broken any Twitter policies. I asked if someone could get back with me and let me know what was going on. The first email was sent 9/20 at 9:57 PM (not yet replied to).
I figured maybe the situation would clear up through the night because there have been times where Twitter has had problems and overnight the issues have cleared up. But, it didn’t and in the morning, my suspended account was still there staring right at me. So, I sent another email 9/21 at 11:44 A.M. (not yet replied to)
This morning, there were reports about Twitter being hacked and the security issues so I thought maybe that has something to do with it but at the same time, someone could respond to an email. Right now, my account is suspended which on Twitter, looks pretty bad to have a suspended account. That reflects on me. So, being the persistent person that I am and also having checked via online sources as well as through Twitter search and Twitter’s Blog to see if a lot of others are having issues (not finding many), I decided to send another email due to the fact of no replies and just feeling left out in the cold. That was sent 9/21 at 5:36 P.M. (no reply as of yet).
I can go to the Open Request Page to check for any updates on my Support Tickets to see if they have been fixed or closed and they say “being processed”. When they were sent, I tried to be very detailed and include my concern as well as my contact information.
This is why I am sharing this with you. So many people use Twitter. I have suggested Twitter and I still do. I have looked up a great deal of information today regarding Twitter and whether I am going about reporting my issue the correct way or if there is a better way. It is hard to report problems with your Twitter account when it is suspended but you can use their email contact suspended@twitter.com or as some people do, set up another Twitter account.
As of recently, I have written articles like, “Tweet Congress” , and “Is the Internet really safe anymore?” . I had also written an article back in July about the social media’s impact on political candidates running for office. “What gain or loss has social media brought to a political candidate?”
I think the Internet can be a great resource of information and a great tool for staying in touch with what is going on in many areas of the world via different media sources instead of only drawing from one media source for all of your information or having to wait until the end of the day to get home to catch up on the day’s news.
At the moment, my tweets aren’t going out. My account is still suspended. I haven’t the least idea what is going on with those I follow on Twitter or my followers and the fact I have been off Twitter for over 24 hours now isn’t what bothers me most. What does is that I have no idea why. It is my understanding this happens and suddenly an account can just be back on with no explanation as to why it was suspended or it could be down for days or for good. I have spent a good amount of time building up my list of people that I follow and those that follow me. To me, it’s not about the amount of people you have on Twitter but who the people are.
I suppose it will be up to someone in an office somewhere to either get my account active again or not but for now I am back to having to pull up the news and different information the old fashion way and I am totally out of touch with those I follow and those who follow me on Twitter.
In so many ways our county is changing and moving so fast but things can so suddenly change back so I guess we can’t forget how to do things either way in case we have to step back a few years. I often ask if people can remember what life was like before the Internet, Twitter, Facebook or cell phones?
Can you imagine?
Change Happens 