To Follow or Not To Follow

@Psycho_Babel is the Psycho-Babble Twitter account. This information is about that account, not my personal account.

I welcome new followers on Twitter, but I also want you to know what you might be getting yourself into.

If you followed me, we'd be connected and you'd automatically get my tweets. Also, anyone could see you were following me. Others interested in Psycho-Babble might read your tweets (including replies to me, but not direct messages to me) and try to connect or network with you.

However, that includes University of Chicago faculty and staff, your friends and family, your present and future employers, and even the police.

• Any of them might infer that you have mental health issues. They might tell others, too. That might lead to prejudice against you.

• You might also feel stressed, harassed, threatened, etc., by interactions with them.

• If you're a member of the Psycho-Babble community, there might be no apparent connection between your posting name there and your Twitter account name, but depending on what you post and tweet, others might link the two, and that might embarrass you or even lead to the loss of your job or criminal prosecution.

I plan to follow back my followers (who may or may not be members of the Psycho-Babble community). If you'd rather I didn't follow you, please feel free to protect your updates or block me. I won't take it personally.

Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD, rhsiung@uchicago.edu

Created: July 5, 2009
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/twitter/followers.html
Copyright 2009 Robert Hsiung.