
Talking to oneself is a sign of mental illness...except on twitter.  Why? - amichail
Most tweets go unanswered and are read by only a few (if any) random followers.  This means people are essentially just talking to themselves most of the time.<p>How is this any different from talking to oneself in public but believing that one is not mentally ill because a few random people nearby might hear what is said?
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jonny_noog
I think your underlying assumption is incorrect. I have always felt that this
old meme about talking to yourself being a sign of mental illness was
completely ridiculous.

Perhaps taken to the extreme, where a person walks around all day spouting
nonsensical gibberish to no one in particular may well be a sign of mental
illness, but this is very different to what most people seem to be referring
to when they think of talking to one's self, and obviously different to what
you seem to be referring to, as your question revolves around the idea that
people's use of Twitter is potentially just them talking to themselves and why
this does not indicate mental illness.

I'm sure there are some out there who do just type nonsensical crap into
Twitter all day. It certainly seems to me that a great deal of the content
that appears on Twitter is inane in the extreme. But none of this supports the
underlying assumption of the meme, which seems to be that talking to one's
self in any capacity is straying into the realm of mental illness.

There is a large difference between the symptoms of mental disorder and having
an introspective conversation with yourself, some or all of which may be
spoken out in an audible manner.

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alaskamiller
Are people saying "John thinks he's sad" or are people saying "I'm sad"?

Because the former is a bit nutso whereas the latter is a form of self
expression and want of communication, regardless whether there's a recipient
or not. The anonymity afforded by Twitter/blogs/websites/whatever to broadcast
is what drives people to those products. It's not the same as a random person
randomly dialing a single phone number to say the same thing.

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DanielBMarkham
Sorry -- were you talking to us?

A lot of posts on HN go nowhere either. Same for blogs.

I guess we just like talking to ourselves.

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jdp
The fact that people are following you means you have an intended (but
debatably attentive) audience.

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pwmanagerdied
I talk to myself in real life almost all day long. An idea I can put into
words I have a more concrete and memorable grip on than one I cannot, and
working that out out-loud is often more natural than doing so in ones head.

