Filed under: Manchester United, Premier League, Football
Sir Alex Ferguson would never consider himself to be "down with the kids". He probably thinks Twitter is something Arsene Wenger does too much of when he's battling to explain why he keeps missing out on league titles.But it's fair to say he's now up to speed with the social network phenomenon after his Manchester United players followed the lead of uber-tweeter Rio Ferdinand - or rioferdy5 as he's known in the Twitterverse - to sign up.
United's players are now falling over themselves to start using the blogging site, with varying results.
Wayne Rooney made a less than impressive introduction on Saturday, asking Ferdinand if he wanted picking up in the morning, before writing: "Hi all this is Wayne Rooney just started so bare with me. Hope all is well. I'll get rio to approve it's me guys. Xoxo".
A number of tweets later, Rooney's followers were rising in their thousands and Ferdinand's status as the No. 1 twitterer of Old Trafford is very much under threat.
Even if the England international's spelling mistakes have already earned him a reprimand from journalist and TV star Piers Morgan.
However, there is a darker side to Twitter that presents an opportunity for anyone to offer their opinion or vent their spleen. Hatred and bile can be spilled out in 140 characters in direct messages to celebrities who have not figured out how to use the blocking system.
Just ask Darron Gibson. The Republic of Ireland international set up his own account on Monday lunchtime but was forced to take it down after a little over an hour and a half.
A torrent of abuse from his own fans, with the general concensus that he was not good enough to wear the club jersey, ensured he is the first United player to be "cyber-bullied" off Twitter.
Gibson has endured a difficult 18 months trying to convince Ferguson he has a part to play at the Theatre of Dreams, but is now acutely aware of how he is viewed by the club's supporters.
There is an immediacy to Twitter that has enabled it to become such a sensation but Gibson needed only 100 minutes to find out how his stock has fallen.
Efforts have been made to woo him back, but it seems unlikely that Gibbo28utd will be returning.
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