Who said I’m old and technology-impaired? (Just because I don’t know how to text…)
This is actually kinda like texting, only you can do it on your computer (like any sane person would — phones are for talking, duh!)
My nieces aren’t even hip to it. (Should I worry that no one else I know is either?)
Anyway, I joined Twitter.
It was actually easy enough for me to figure out. And it’s a lot like IM’ing.
(If you don’t know what IM’ing is, who am I to scoff? It means Instant Messaging — a way to type short messages to people so you can talk back and forth. I remember when we got the capability to IM each other over our internal network at work, like 14 years ago — oh the messages that were flying (Cindy). Even though we only sat 2 desks away from each other.)
Anyway, to me, IM, Twitter, texting — it’s just the fancy, tech-y equivalent of passing notes in class — and God knows I did plenty of that!
Twitter prompts you to answer the question, “What are you doing?” and gives you 140 characters to do it in. Some people get “Tweets” to their cell phones, but that would be like texting and involve paying for it and such. Not me, I just Tweet up there in cyberspace. You can set up your Twitter page to follow whomever you like, and their Tweets and yours appear on the page. You can respond to particular Tweets if you like, or just sit back and see what your friends or fellow bloggers or even colleagues — some people use Twitter for business — are up to. Oh, and you can keep your Tweets private if you want, so people can only view them if you give permission.
My tweets are now in the sidebar on the left. As you can see, it’s not earth-shattering stuff. But for someone like me, working solo, chained to a computer, stir-crazy from the lack of human contact, it’s just another little way to feel connected.
And maybe even a little hip.
We live in a society exquisitely dependent on
science and technology, in which hardly anyone
knows anything about science and technology.
~ Carl Sagan
Writing by Ear 
Facie said,
Friday, March 6, 2009 at 4:32 pm
We have this new “segment” at work called Food for Thought. During this approx 30-minute period during lunch hour once a week, our marketing guy shows us (whoever wants to come) something interesting and often relevant to our industry. This past Tuesday, we saw a couple of talks on Twitter. I found it interesting. However, I am not quite ready to tweet since my blog, despite my writing in it only a few times a week, seems to take up a lot of time (I have to check daily to see who commented!).
I also have been on Facebook for a month now, and that takes up time too, way more than the blog. There too you type in a status update. Some are silly, some are interesting. For me, it has been a great way to catch up with college and high school friends. And it seems less professional than Twitter, which I prefer (I have LinkedIn for that).
But I still may tweet. Randy from DVE certainly was into it during SB week. If I get the urge (which may result in my ODing on FB), I will follow you! And if you are looking to follow someone, check out TF’s twitter.
WritingbyEar said,
Monday, March 9, 2009 at 10:25 am
Thanks for the info, Facie. I set up a “professional” Twitter and started following TF. I’ve looked at Facebook a couple times, but I really don’t know that any of my friends are on it. I’m more into trying to keep up a professional presence (whatever that means) — I’m pretty far behind the times compared to folks working in a “real” biz with access to all the latest gadgets and technology.