Pop singer Chris Brown is the latest in a long line of celebrities to leave the popular social networking website Twitter. Brown’s departure follows a trend set by others, including Disney sensation Miley Cyrus and rapper Lil Wayne. Unlike his celebrity peers, however, according to MTV, Brown’s departure from Twitter isn’t the result of a long battle for privacy, however, but a more recent rant in which Brown accused stores of not stocking his latest album.

“Brown’s exit came after a week’s worth of Twitter-based ranting about stores not stocking his new album Graffiti. The singer was convinced that there was some sort of conspiracy, and that either his label or the retail outlets were blackballing him. In one of his last screeds, he talked about going into a Wal-Mart in Wallingford, CT, and discovering that there were no copies of the record to be found. The idea that Brown has been blackballed because of his legal difficulties (he plead guilty to assault stemming from his beating of Rihanna in February and is currently serving a service-based sentence) was refuted by a store manager at that particular Wal-Mart, who asserted that the reason why Brown couldn’t find any copies of his album was because they had sold out of it soon after its official release.”

One of the cool things about Twitter is how it brings everyone down to the same level. Not only are celebrities on Twitter talking about their lives, but they were talking to us about their lives. For many Hollywood personalities, Twitter represented a new dawn where they could interact with their fans directly without having to go through the rigamarole of publicity agents or worrying how their comments will be misinterpreted in the tabloids. Whatever they had to say, they could say it…with no filter…24 hours a day.

Hmm. On second thought…

Considering celebrities aren’t exactly known for their discrete behavior, Twitter has quickly become not only a place for people to connect with their favorite celebs, but to make fun of them too. Given that any slip-up or hastily constructed Tweet was being sent to hundreds of thousands (sometimes millions) of followers, the risk associated with maintaining an active public Twitter account has been too much for many celebrities. Granted, there are some who handle the pressure fine (Ashton Kutcher’s Twitter account has set the bar for many other celebrities), but that doesn’t mean that everyone should use the service.

Proactively managing your identity is an absolute must in the digital age, and sites like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace are part of that. However, if you don’t exercise caution and restraint, you run the risk of causing additional damage to your personal brand. In many ways, Twitter is like drinking. If you can’t do it responsibly, you probably shouldn’t be doing it, and that goes for celebrities and regular people alike.