Hollywood actors who had fallen in love with social networking website Twitter when it was launched a few years ago, seem to have suddenly developed an aversion to it.

Singer John Mayer, who boasted a massive 3.7 million followers on the social networking website, shut his Twitter account on Tuesday, becoming the latest of the several celebrities to quit the pastime of posting their thoughts on the site.

Others who deleted their accounts include Miley Cyrus and Amanda Bayes, the latter actually announcing last week that she was closing down her association. Disney starlet Demi Lovato posted this, before packing her bags: Goodbye to twitter... the access that the other people have is uncomfortable to me.

Robert Thompson, a professor of Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University was quoted by a wire agency as saying that celebrities believed tweeting to be an easy way of bypassing a press release and reaching their fans directly.

Many celebrities are realizing that familiarity actually breeds contempt and the fans, who found them distant and unapproachable, were finding the new found bonding quite uncomfortable and tiring, he says.

Media commentator Paul Levinson, who authored the 2009 book 'New New Media' believes that celebrities who joined the Twitter bandwagon due to peer pressure, were finding it difficult to cope with the constant attention. For some, it will continue to be one of the best things they could do, while for others it has become an imposition, Levinson was quoted as saying by Reuters.

The general feeling is that the Twitter buzz was far from over in Hollywood. Bonnie Fuller of HollywoodLife.com believes that there are ten waiting to sign up for every celebrity that quits the social networking website. For the stars, it remains a great forum to communicate with fans, share information without fear of being misquoted and getting instant feedback.

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