Local celebs blur on Twitter

ONE MAN'S MEAT
By PHILIP GOLINGAI

Tweet addict Adam Tuan Mukriz finds reading has never been this fun. On Twitter less is definitely more, and summing up one’s ideas in fewer than 140 characters is a challenge.

IT was a Wednesday night and Twitterer @ATM2U was very, very bored in his Kuala Lumpur apartment and he decided to be playful.

He remembered how a friend used reverse psychology on unfollowers (those who cease to follow a Twitter user) by thanking them for unfollowing.

@ATM2U thought it would be cool to pretend a celebrity had just unfollowed him.

Iman, a Somalian ex-supermodel and David Bowie’s wife, came to his mind, naturally.

@ATM2U explained in an e-mail: “Iman has always intrigued me as the epitome of a successful juxtaposition of cultures.

“Iman has a je ne sais quoi (French for “something that cannot be adequately described”). She is one of the earliest Black models who proved that beauty has no race, breaking many taboos.”

So he tweeted: “Thanks @The_Real_IMAN for unfollowing. Have a pleasant day filled with keimanan (faith)”.

“Unbeknownst to me, Iman was online,” recalled the man who speaks Malay, English and French fluently. “And she responded by saying: ‘ok, ok, ok.... i’m following! happy?”

“Hehehe! Cemas ni (I’m anxious) ... I am one step closer to Heaven!” was one of @ATM2U’s instant tweets.

Immediately, a few of his followers responded.

“Someone asked if we went to school together and another asked me to swear to prove I was not lying,” he revealed.

@ATM2U is clueless on why Iman – who follows 159 twitters including @KimKardashian (Kim Kardashian), @EvaLongoria (Eva Longoria) and @maryjblige (Mary J. Blige) – followed him.

“I prefer not to know. As superficial as it may sound, Iman following me on Twitter is as magical as a child watching a circus for the first time: the exuberant colours, the cacophonic sound, the earthy smell of animals,” he bubbled.

I asked @aimanurrahman (Aiman Abdul Rahman) why he is following @ATM2U. His reply via Twitter was: “... because his tweets are inspiring and funny”.

For me (@philipgolingai), I follow @ATM2U because he’s witty. For instance, @AkmalHisyam7 (Akmal Hisyam) tweeted: “My next client is a datin. How to entertain?”

And @ATM2U’s reply was: “Read 69 Ways To Entertain A Datin by Rico Tajuddin”.

Thinking I was funny, I tweeted: “Bring to kfc. Finger Lickin’ Good.”

@ATM2U is YM Adam Tuan Mukriz, the nom de plume of a “soon-to-be quadragenarian”, from Teluk Intan in Perak.

As he describes himself, “the only thing supreme about Adam Tuan Mukriz is that he loves The Supremes and Diana Ross. No ketuanan (supremacy) whatsoever.” He hates bourgeoisie.

Daily, Adam posts a minimum of 100 tweets on various topics.

“It is hard to pigeonhole my tweets as my interests vary from politics to entertainment and the arts. My tweets depend a lot on news appearing on my timeline (a real-time list of tweets on Twitter),” he said.

“Twitter’s fluidity is simply amazing. It is almost like a game trying to follow all the news – retweeting (the act of forwarding another user’s Tweet to all of your followers) and commenting if need be.”

He finds Twitter addictive and informative.

“Reading has never been this fun. Less is definitely more on Twitter. Summing up your ideas in fewer than 140 characters is a challenge,” says the Twitterer who does not do abbreviations.

Now that @The_Real_IMAN is following, what’s next?

“This is when it gets tricky. When someone follows you on Twitter, it gives you the impression that both of you are now friends,” noted @ATM2U.

“Wrong. Things get even trickier when a celebrity follows you based on several cute and lovely tweets you wrote about him/her – only to notice later that you are one boring person. And like a failed relationship, you get dumped – or aptly termed ‘unfollowed’.”

What’s @ATM2U’s take on Malay­sian celebs who tweet?

“Local celebrities are clueless when it comes to Twitter. They are either too nice or too stuck-up, with zero interaction. Too nice when they feel obliged to respond to every ‘hi’ and ‘hello’ - and too stuck-up when their tweets are just one-way communication,” he observed.

“They have to find a balance. The recent Bersih rally has somehow triggered more ‘mainstream’ local celebrities to tweet their two cents (worth) but unfortunately most of them were predictable.”

@ATM2U’s other 15 minutes of fame in Twittersphere is that a prominent mall in KL has blocked him. (To block someone on Twitter means they will be unable to follow you or add you to their lists).

“I was vocal in questioning its national language policy,” he said.

“I must have made an impact to be blocked. I am Erin Brockovich. LOL (laughing out loud.)”