Resenting the New Retweeting

When I logged into our M Booth Twitter account on Friday, I was greeted with this exciting message:

It’s cool that we’ve got a sneak peek at the new retweet function before most other people, but I’m not really sold on it. I’m not one of those people who freaks out every time Facebook changes its homepage and I’m really not that averse to change, but I don’t think I’ll use the new retweet system once it becomes universally available. As far as I’m concerned, it has eliminated the most essential part of the retweet — the ability for the retweeter to add his or her own commentary.

I vary rarely retweet something without adding my own note (I usually add it before the “RT,” so it’s clear that it’s from me and not the person I’m retweeting), just as I think it’s pointless to reblog something on Tumblr without adding value to it. Otherwise, Twitter would just be one gigantic echo chamber, and where’s the fun in that? Hopefully, the Twitter folk will figure out a way to allow retweeters to enhance retweets with their own messages before this functionality comes out of beta, or I’ll still just do my retweeting the “old-fashioned” way.

—Alyssa