There is a new option at Twitter allowing you to receive direct messages from people you don’t follow. The logic goes that it is difficult for non-friends to get direct messages to you so why not open it up to everyone? Why not indeed? I’m personally not going to be turning this on for a few reasons: 

1. Spam

You know those spammy at-messages that show up in your Twitter feed? I expect it will be 50 times worse if they can DM you. 

2. DMs are Precious Flowers

I generally use DM’s for nice little comments to friends, like when they make something I enjoy or I want to wish them a Happy Birthday. My friends do the same for me. I don’t want that getting cluttered up. 

3. I have an email account

I have an email account and after investing a non-substantial amount of time, I’ve figured out how to live with email and make it useful to me. I don’t want strangers sending me more things to “process” in my Twitter account. That would ruin all the fun. 

The whole thing just strikes me as nutty and the exact opposite of what I liked about Twitter when I joined in January 2007. If this new change were mandatory with all accounts, it would make me seriously question whether or not I keep going forward with Twitter. As it stands, it’s now just an option which will remain, for me, unchecked.