Can We Take Back Follow Friday on Twitter?

A number of months ago I posted about why I hate Fridays on Twitter. It’s the day people post their “Follow Friday” recommendations. People are supposed to post why others should follow someone. But what was once a great trend has become something that clogs my Twitter feed every Friday.

Instead of saying “Hey, I recommend @FunWithCarbsLG because she’s an awesome food blogger” (and totally giving my friend Leeanne a real recomendation because she’s awesome), we get these massive lists of people to follow with no explanation of why. For example:

More #FF: @ChristinaTVG @ChrisWintjen @MarcMalusis @NeilKeefe @EJHradek_ESPN @simmerpuck @ErnieAcostaWFAN @Abbs75 @HeidiAndrol—
Brian Monzo (@BMonzoNHL660) February 25, 2011

There are some people who dump the same recomendations every week too. I know because I can see myself mentioned every week by the same people. I like how you love following me, but change it up, guys.

And I know I’m not the only one who is annoyed by how Follow Friday has evolved over time. The Oatmeal posted a fabulous comic about it a few weeks back. I posted the link to the comic on Twitter today saying it’s how I feel and got similar thoughts from people.

Same here. RT @jenconnic: I think @Oatmeal sums up best how I feel about #FollowFriday. http://bit.ly/hp0TWt—
JD (@Section518) February 25, 2011

But maybe we should at least try to take back Follow Friday. I’ve abandoned giving recommendations on Friday because of my stance on the whole thing. Perhaps I should change that to set an example of how this is supposed to work. And what if those of us who are annoyed all did the same thing every Friday? What if we all gave one or two quality recommendations every Friday? Perhaps we could turn this back into what it was supposed to be.