How cats will dominate the world thanks to the "Touitoui"

• Many Twitter users have created an account for their cats (if).
• The cats speak there with their own language and tackle various subjects.
• This parallel network also makes it possible to tackle serious subjects.

It all started in early January, with this message from my department head. "I discover the world of" touitoui ", cats on Twitter", wrote Benjamin Chapon to me. He admits his "discomfort": "Cats are on Insta", he believes. At the same time, his Twitter notifications are filled with messages and tweets from cat accounts.

Why all these messages? This not very careful journalist had the misfortune to propose to organize "a contest of the most beautiful cats of twittos". Then land an army of "pôtichats", cats using Twitter, dissatisfied with the conditions of the competition. "But your rules are a bit rotten paske the TwiTwi of the potichats it is the cats which manage it you see, therefore it is the cats which have accounts and not humans you see. It's a whole culture and you shouldn't mix, ”DidineChatNinja wrote to him.

As this case takes on a dimension that I never suspected, here are the rules:
1- Have a Twitter account
2- Having a cat
I gather a jury which will choose the winner among the photos which will have had the most likes / ❤️
Winner Wins Box of Chicken Pie

Ah well here! You see the human when you want! But your rules are a bit rotten paske the TwiTwi of the potichats it is the cats which manage it you see, therefore it is the cats which have accounts and not humans you see. It's all 1 culture and should not be mixed.

A Twitter run by cats? It doesn't take more to intrigue us. I propose to investigate this "Touitoui".

Feline republic

The Touitoui (or Twitwi) of pôtichats, is indeed a full-fledged community on French-speaking Twitter. They have their codes (the world is seen through the eyes of the cat), their language (the syntax is different, and we speak of "pôtichats", of their "z'humains", the veterinarian is "the Blouse", etc) and their passions (the patépoulet seems to be one of the main). They tell their daily lives, their latest nonsense and their frustrations. They even have a government: Twitwi is indeed a (feline) Republic, headed by a "Présinours" and a government of "minoustres". "Minoustre des mamychats et papychats", "Minoustre de la Santé et des pressriptions", "secretary deschats des plans vigiptites pattes" ... The titles are as varied as the desires of "cats".

To be part of the “Touitoui”, nothing could be simpler: you just need to be a chat account and adopt their way of speaking, explains Valentin, the “human” of @Nounourslechat, the Présinours. He appoints the minoustres, organizes the election of the "miouss" or promulgates decrees.

Yes then sorry, my speech was delayed because of a fondue.
On New Years Eve, I wanted to show you my affection for all the cats twitter. In April I was a complete stranger to 20 subscribers and now I have a thousand more

"We take on the character of the cat, interpreting its behavior"

Valentin is 20 years old and a student. He does not have an account in his name, only that of his cat, Licorice in the civil status, soon 5 years. “Before I discovered the cat community, I was already using her photo to be anonymous on social networks. I sometimes retweeted accounts of famous cats like Grumpy Cat, but I did not know the amateur accounts. In 2017, he discovered the @SuetterlinKatz account, creator of the language now used by Touitoui cats. “I got caught up in the game, retweeted, and then adopted the language. "

The "Touitoui" cats mainly talk about naps, food, hugs with their humans, objects they have broken or trips they have taken. Sometimes the discussions are more serious, when the “pôtichats” ask for advice on an injury or illness, or when they retweet an announcement concerning a lost or waiting cat for a family.

The colleague he is looking for humans is a very nice trégentil coworker colleague he looks as intelligent and clever as me AND THAT IS SAY https://t.co/iyhQ92ros2

Our English friends are having a serious problem #CatsOfTwitter #diplouminoutie https://t.co/1nmdj2NS6W

Pass messages

"This community is quite committed to the animal condition," explains Valentin. Géraldine, 47, the human of Marley and Pago, the cats of the account @DidineChatNinja, also uses it to pass messages: "We often tweet to encourage to adopt, to tattoo his cat, or to sterilize him, to avoid the proliferation of abandoned cats. Said by cats, the message gets better. Other people use Touitoui as a bubble outside the negativity of social networks. "

It is also for the very "positive" aspect of Twitter "pôtichats", miles away from the controversies that frequently ignite the social network, that Géraldine transformed in the fall of 2018 her human account into an account of cat. This mother, who works and invests in the association, had registered on Twitter to follow the news. “At the time of the yellow vests, everyone was insulting themselves. There is uninhibited aggressiveness on humans' Twitter, ”she said. One day, she sees a cat tweet. "I thought, 'No, right, people do that?' "Little by little, she gets caught up in the game, begins to follow accounts of cats ..." And then I told myself that they were right. »She modifies her account, on which she talks about Guiness and Yoda, two cats now deceased. Marley and Pago have taken up the torch.

"We communicate with a positive vocabulary"

"We try to have the look on the world that we imagine a cat could have, knowing that the life of the cat is only in the satisfaction of its pleasures, details Géraldine. We communicate with a positive vocabulary, we come here to greet and congratulate ourselves. Behind it is a way of wishing humans a good day. "

Géraldine, like Valentin, avoid talking about politics or “controversial subjects” via their chat. But most cats tell about the daily life of their humans, and thus about society. “For example, many cats have humans who do Ramadan. They talked about it, it became the "rat-madan" in our language, explains Géraldine. When a cat said his human could have changed marital status, everyone congratulated him. There is a kind of collective unconscious which is created on the same values ​​of "positivitude" and "mignonitude", as the cats would say. "

Uh tonight issè passed a weird thing ... That one dezumaines with her butterfly around her neck put her on one knee and after the 2 zumaines they were crying? Finally I had special pate "for the occasion kitten". I don't understand but I accept 🐱

Mourning through the eyes of the cat

But cats sometimes tackle more difficult subjects. Like death, or "the Great Nap", because it often happens that cats die. Crapouille, one of the pioneers of cat Twitter, died in December 2019. Through his latest tweets, we can read his illness, the concern and the grief of his mistress.

I am at the blouse I hugged and there I go to the Great Nap.
It was good to know you all the colleagues just if you can warn when a poticollègue will adopt my human it is necessary beware seen since it never keeps its potichats for a long time.

A few weeks earlier, Valentin had created @ LeGrandRêve, an account on which "we can leave messages for cats or animals on Twitter". “Many people hide from crying when they lose an animal. The solidarity we feel on Twitter helps in mourning for the animal, ”says Géraldine.

Some even recount personal mourning, "seen" by their cat. This is the case of Claire, 38 years old. “I talked a bit via my chat about my father's death. I told of some rather absurd episodes, the cat kept on hiding because it was lost in a house full of people. Telling life through the eyes of your cat is also a way of putting certain events at a distance. "

"Playing with social networks and language"

This doctor and teacher-researcher in comparative literature is the human of Scat, the cat who speaks from the @SuetterlinKatz account to 5,900 subscribers. Claire partly created the language used today by the "Touitoui".

"I adopted Scat in 2015, and I created the account not long after," she explains. I have a personal Twitter account, which I use a lot. I saw the chat account as a way of playing with social media and language. At the time, she worked with her students on the animal point of view in literature. “We were discussing the animal narrator, which raises the question of language: how do animals speak? How do we show their otherness in human language? Here, this involves the distortion of French, with classic syntax and spelling defects. "

And also I would like to say my human if we interviove her she will say it is fiction literary pleasure the game with language etcetera etcetera but it is lies fiction my ass me I am a real cat very real

So many faults that become new codes, taken up by cats who imitate each other. “I did not think about a system, it came gradually and it made a splash of oil. "

Satire humans

She gives her Twitter cat the characteristics of her own cat. "He is fearful, greedy, kind, curious ... I sometimes tweet him about the news, football, demonstrations, presidents ... It is a way of using the voice of the cat to make parody. Besides, if we look at the writers who amused themselves by bringing in animals, it is often to satire humans, ”observes Claire. The way of functioning of the accounts of cat recalls besides that of other famous parody accounts of Twitter, like @ JesusOfficiel or @_dieuOff.

Marley is the touvoui chavocat. - DidineChatNinja's Twitter

But all this is just the opinion of humans. Cats assume they use Twitter for a very specific purpose. "We make meows to educate our humans well and that they serve us better," Marley and Pago explain to me by private message. “We potichats are going to dominate Twitter with our cuteness. "

Pago is Marley's partner. - DidineChatNinja's Twitter

Scat has less ambition: "My organization wants domination * of the world * but me that I am a modest cat I want domination of my home, that it is already a lot of work. I want to say [to humans] they have to be adopted by a cat and then they need their cat he has his twitter and like that humans they will laugh every day a little it is good for morale. "A word to the wise ...

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