Being without a computer for the last few weeks has been a major change in my routine. My usual habit of catching up with my social networking sites and blogs after dinner has been confined to the tiny screen of my iPhone. It also made me realize just how connected I am to both friends and strangers via social networking.
I was talking to my friend about this and she asked me if I had a Twitter account. I didn't (until this morning) have a Twitter account. I explained to her that I really don't feel the need to update the Twitterverse on what I am doing, what I am eating, and what I am thinking every few hours (or minutes!) I also informed her I have enough going on in my own life, I don't need to hear about everyone else's.
Her: "But isn't that exactly what you are doing on your blog, and on Facebook, and when you read and comment on other blogs?"
Me: (In a defensive tone) "Uh, noooo. That is way different!"
Her: "How?"
Me: "Because blogs are an expression of ideas in a robust way. They are not 140 character sentences about what a person is eating! Also, blogging is a community."
Her: "Sometimes blogs are about what a person is eating (Your baking posts, for example, Mara). And Tweeting is really just another way to communicate ideas -- just with more brevity. Twitter is a community too, you know. You need to be able to evolve with social networking, because it is always changing and growing."
Me: "But what kind of meaningful discourse can come out of 140 characters?"
Her: (smiling, she knew she had me) "You'll never know until you try..."
So, this week I am going to experiment with Twitter. If anything, maybe it will be another way I can connect with my blog readers and possibly interest some new readers. Also, my friend informs me that you can get news Tweets, and museum Tweets, and theater Tweets, and band Tweets! That would be pretty neat.
If you have any words of Twitter-wisdom, or any thoughts on Twitter, please leave them in the comments. Or, you can always shoot me a Tweet at @AdulthoodMara!
(picture via ZoomInfoBlogger)
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I agree with your comments about blog/versus twitter. I think it also depends on what the mission of your blog is - if twittering works with it. I want to refrain from having to throw my hand over my mouth, uttering, "Uh, what have I said" - reducing foot in mouth disease! Blogging is a healthy option (especially with teens and their boundaries) for me.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love Twitter, though I had it for a very long time until I started using it. I don't contribute so much, but I follow many people, places and things (nouns?) that interest me. I follow my favorite news organizations (both old dino media and new slick places), video game developers, indie net' stars, various bloggers, my auto-repair shop (crazy?), bands, local San Diego events and ticket offerings... list goes on.
ReplyDeleteI believe the concepts surrounding microblogging lends itself to greater accessibility. I'm following.. say BioWare corp, and normally its just Community Managers engaging the public.. but they really are engaging us and directly answering questions. The ease and accessibility also comes into play when actual game designers, developers, writers... the bigwigs get on the account and answer questions and chat as well.
And, though there is the stigma that people use it as a mind dump (such as in this skit - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALbH63Ali9U ), that stigma honestly exists for blogs as well. In my circle of buddies, blogging is synonymous with 16-year-old girls on LiveJournal writing about how mean people at high school are and polluting the Internet with godawful Harry Potter fanfiction.
I'd also suggest un-protecting your tweets, as keeping everything private wont really expose your thoughts to any new audiences.
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