Pet Tweeters

22 February 2012

Why would people tweet their pets?

There are a great number of animals tweeting on the Internet; or shall I say pet owners hiding behind the photographs of their pets.

I remember years ago I was very shocked when a “pommie” (English friend) referred to someone as having a puss-face.   In those days I only knew the South African interpretation of the word. 
Today there are many cat- and dog-faced identities on Facebook and Twitter.
It is in Twitter that one can get behind the psychology of these pet-faced identities.

For what reason would someone choose to use a photograph other then their own as an avatar?
Some of the reasons may be:
1.    The person fear identification for some reason.
2.    The person does not have the courage to make his comments face to face.
3.    The person does not like the way they look.
4.    People with poor self-esteems.
5.    The person does not want to reveal their age, gender or race.
6.    Just for fun.
7.    Want to communicate as sequels among all gender, racial or age groups – brain-to-brain rather than face-to-face.

 Why use the identity of an animal friend or pet?
1.    All the above reasons.
2.    Someone who loves animals more than people.
3.    Someone who make money from the upkeep of animals.
4.    Animal charity organizations.
5.    Someone who wants to meet other animal lovers.
6.    Someone who wants to try and experience the world through the senses of their animal.
Above are a few possible reasons for not using ones own ID photograph or using that of a most loved pet as a photograph.
I am sure there must be some professional scientific psychological profile for people using pseudo identities on the Internet.   Above is my own unprofessional summery.

If we are one of those un- or other-human profile people we can use the above lists to do some self-examination.   We may just find out something about ourselves that we were not aware of before.

For an example you may want to follow Onesock Dog on Twitter who is the mascot for the Blaauwberg Animal Trust.

It may be a good exercise for any psychologist or anyone working in a field where communication with public or with a patients are required, to look at the world through the eyes of an animal.   We are often so caught up in our own importance that we fail to recognize the true need of other.