Wednesday, May 20, 2009

To tweet, or not to tweet...

Someone told me that being on Twitter is like talking about what you’re doing, but no one specific is listening.

Sounds very much like being a mom.

After much hesitation, I finally bit the bullet and joined Twitter today. At first it’s a bit depressing. You join, create a screen name and get accepted. Then your home page comes up, and it asks, “What are you doing?” You have a little box to furnish a reply, but off to the side there’s a counter for “following,” “followers,” and “updates.” A fresh Twitter account will have zeroes in all those categories, which is very sad. No friends to follow. No friends to follow me. Nothing going on in my life.

Boo. Hoo. Hoo.

My first official post: “Learning how to Twitter. Tweet. Whatever.”

Updates = 1. Cool.

I know two people for sure who are on Twitter, so I searched them and now follow them. Then I decided to follow two people I don’t know personally, but love their books and blogs.

Following = 4. Getting better.

Then, one of my friends who I decided to follow returned the favor.

Followers = 1. ☺

The possibilities are endless when it comes to following people. Endless, I tell you. And like I need another social diversion to monitor throughout the day. Isn’t email, a blog and Facebook enough?

Apparently not.

I have to wonder, does anyone else really care what I’m doing? Most of the time, it’s stuff only important to me. And maybe my family. Even if the kids aren’t listening…

2 comments:

Lindy said...

I care. Hell, I even "mobiled" you - I get your tweets on my phone, that's how much I care!

The only thing I don't like are the people I don't know via IRL or my blog that follow. Then, when I click on their usernames Twitter tells me they've been removed for questionable contact. I immediately block those people - if I can't follow you back, there's a problem!

Amy said...

What I've found surprising about Twitter is the exchange of information -- links to articles on every topic imaginable. It's a lot more than "eating a ham sandwich..."

I'm @4thfrog if you want to follow me. I'll follow you back.

Also, I highly recommend downloading TweetDeck. Makes the Twitter experience much more manageable and fun.