Forever alone: Debbie Downers take the fun out of Twitter's new popularity metrics

Twitter addicts who measure their self-worth in retweets (yes, we they exist) have a new tool to obsess over, and it’s built right into Twitter. Yes, Twitter can now count past 50.

Tweets past, present, and future now show their exact number of retweets and favorites instead of showing “50+” if they pass that count — a move that could promote vanity and competition on Twitter. Since the change is applied retroactively, you can see a tweet about stopping polio from Bill Gates last year got 1,178 retweets and 119 favorites, and yes, all Justin Bieber had to do was tweet “New York City. #BELIEVE” this week to score 22,276 retweets.

Aw, our widdle microblogging service is all growed up!

Some Twitter users are thrilled with the new feature.

Is Twitter now showing how many retweets a tweet got above 50? Are we saved? #caring

— big tuna (@keder) June 15, 2012

https://twitter.com/TorontoHearts1D/status/213794886607044608

https://twitter.com/cardinalstudent/status/213818205888708609

Sweet, sweet validation! But the new service is not for everyone.

The biggest amount of RTs Ive had on a tweet is 9, therefore i will not benefit from twitter saying the actual number not 50+

— Ellie (@heyelzz) June 18, 2012

https://twitter.com/HBCFan517/status/214493826688090112

https://twitter.com/kklorraineg/status/214098704938971137

https://twitter.com/RachelTwoDicks/status/214428728988663809

Aww. Give these guys a RT or two.