Follow/Follower
to follow: verbo transitivo
follower: sostantivo
to unfollow: verbo transitivo
unfollower: sostantivo
There are those who follow Jesus and those who do not.
My dad followed Arsenal for thirty years.
Have you been following the US election campaign?
Il verbo to follow, “seguire”, sia nel significato proprio che in quello figurato, è abbastanza noto. È proprio dal senso figurato di “seguire un leader politico o religioso”, “seguire le vicende o gli sviluppi di qualcosa” – si tratti della squadra del cuore o di un’elezione politica – che, dal 2006, questo umile verbo inglese ha acquistato un nuovo significato e un nuovo uso. Oggi, to follow someone su un sito di social network, per esempio su Twitter, significa semplicemente scegliere di visualizzarne i post. Si possono seguire amici, conoscenti o personaggi (più o meno) in vista: giornalisti, politici, cantanti, comici e persino il papa. Ed è così che si diventa loro follower:
To get up-to-date news follow us on Twitter.
The comedian has over a million followers on Instagram.
In inglese, questo nuovo senso di follower deriva sì dal concetto di seguire lo sviluppo o lo svolgimento di qualcosa, ma in esso è insito anche il significato di “seguace” che invece manca nell’uso italiano di follower nel contesto dei social media.
Naturalmente si può anche unfollow (o defollow) someone, verbi resi talvolta in italiano con “unfolloware” e “defolloware”e diventare quindi unfollower. Unfollow e unfollower sono parole coniate di recente in seguito allo sviluppo e all’espansione dei social media:
I already have an app for unfollowing people but I want to unfollow everyone all at once.
We use optional email or tweet notification to notify you about your unfollowers.
Sullo stesso filone possiamo trovare unfriend e defriend, di cui parleremo un’altra volta.
to follow: transitive verb
follower: noun
to unfollow: transitive verb
unfollower: noun
There are those who follow Jesus and those who do not.
My dad followed Arsenal for thirty years.
Have you been following the US election campaign?
Everyone knows what to follow someone means: to move along behind them or, figuratively, to believe in their ideas and observe their teachings. Typically you can follow a religious or political leader; you can also follow a sports team, or the way something is developing. But in the years since 2006 this very basic English verb has acquired a new meaning. To follow someone on Twitter or another social networking site means simply to sign up to receive their posts. The people you follow may be your friends, or people in the public eye such as journalists, politicians, singers or comedians. In fact, you are their follower:
To get up-to-date news follow us on Twitter.
The comedian has over a million followers on Instagram.
In English this new meaning of follower derives from the notion of following events as they unfold, but also hints at the religious or ideological meaning. In Italian, however, a follower on social media is generally described using the English word, and therefore remains unassociated with the notion of the seguace, thus avoiding connotations of adherence to a political or spiritual cause.
You can also decide to unfollow (or defollow) someone by unsubscribing from their account, thus becoming an unfollower. Unlike follow and follower, unfollow and unfollower are new coinages that have appeared in order to describe a new kind of behaviour that didn’t previously exist:
I already have an app for unfollowing people but I want to unfollow everyone all at once.
We use optional email or tweet notification to notify you about your unfollowers.
Similar words relating to social networking sites include unfriend and defriend, of which more another time.
