The 46 stages of every Twitter user

1. Hear about the word Twitter. Hmm
2. Hear the word again from somewhere else. Hmm again.
3. Hear about famous celebrity who is “On Twitter.” Hmm. Making mental note to take a look.
4. Sign in on Facebook to comfort self.
5. Create a Twitter account to try it.
6. Gives up. Twitter seems boring and stupid.
7. Talks down on Twitter.
8. Follow @barackobama, @aplusk, @LadyGaga @jtimberlake @KimKardashian and @oprah, and two other people you actually know.
9. Tweets something like: “Trying this Twitter thing.”
10. Attempt to dig a little bit deeper into Twitter.
11. Finds our some new words: “Tweet,” “Twitter,” “Retweet,” “Tweetdeck,” and something random called “RT.”
12. Hmm again, this time in real confusion. Trying to figure out what "favoriting" a tweet means but no one knows.
13. Tell the people you know that you “tried the Twitter thing, but did not get it. It’s boring and stupid anyway.”
14. Sign in on Facebook because that site at least makes sense.
15. Read story about Twitter somewhere.
16. Sign in on Twitter to give it one more try.
17. Try to avoid saying Tweet, Twitter, Retweet, Tweetdeck, and RT.
18. Respond to a celebrity thinking that they will actually read your tweet.
19. Curse self for fanning out.
20. Log off for 4 month
21. Come back, just to see.
22. Post something relatively funny.
23. Get RT’d.
24. Discover that RT means ReTweet.
25. Make it your life mission to get RT’d.
26. Install Twitter app on your phone.
27. No longer ashamed to say “I’ve gotta tweet that.”
28. Attend events with the sole intention of “Tweeting” them.
29. Pray to get RT’d.
30. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh.
31. Close computer.
32. Open computer. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh.
33. Think in 140 character sentences.
34. Compulsively check phone all day every day.
35. Tweet that you compulsively check phone all day every day.
36. Alienate actual people in your life in an attempt to impress ones you don’t know.
37. Lose weight because you forget to eat.
38. Place phone by bed so you can check first thing in the morning.
39. Defend Twitter to the death from detractors.
40. Hear self, and vaguely recognize that you have become “That Guy.”
41. Feel like you should stop spending so much time on Twitter for real.
42. Vow to quit Twitter to preserve sanity.
43. Read this and change mind.
44. Think to self, “I should tweet this.”
45. Recognize irony.
46. Tweeting it.

That's all for today, thanks!
Anton Perlkvist, The Twitter Entrepreneur
Follow me on Twitter: TWITTER.COM/FUN