Learn before you tweet!

Vasuki Sunkavalli has erred. Attempting at being a beauty with brains, she tried airing her knowledge on Twitter by copy-pasting what other people were saying. We all know that a beauty pageant demands a combination of beauty and brains for the candidate to make it to the finals, but the knowledge has to be personal, not borrowed from someone else. By posting somebody else’s opinion about politics on her account, Vasuki is being called a twagiarist.

Vasuki admits she made a mistake and did not know how to use the retweet feature, which can be used to share somebody else’s tweet or opinion on one’s own wall. Sadanand Dhume, a writer and columnist from Washington DC, USA, was shocked to find his opinion tweets about democracy on Vasuki’s Twitter profile, without any credit to him.
What followed next was a verbal battle between the two on the social networking site, which got Vasuki a mention in the Washington Post, sadly, for all the wrong reasons. Vasuki blamed the incident on her technical incompetence, but Dhume had a good laugh posting about Twitter etiquette and calling her a twagiarist, a term coined by the writer.
Malini Agarwal, a celebrity gossip blogger from Mumbai says, “As funny as the 'Twagirism’ episode is, I believe she probably just didn’t know how to use the Retweet button. Having said that, in this day and age, and if you are a celebrity on Twitter, it’s probably a good idea to learn about the technology you are using so you don’t end up looking stupid.”

Actor Rana Daggubati, who is a frequent tweeter, admits that people who use Twitter should know the basics of it. He says, “It’s a very simple thing and I wonder how Vasuki missed it.” But being a representative of the country on an International platform, could Vasuki have handled the situation any better? Sunita Kanga, an international etiquette expert, says, “It always helps to be familiar with norms of social etiquette. She could have politely apologised and tweeted giving Sadanand his due credit.” Kanga also adds that “models for such pageants should be taught social media etiquette. Let’s give Vasuki the benefit of doubt, to err is not a crime. Let’s hope it doesn’t cause her any further embarrasment.”