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Friday, October 17, 2008

Twitter

As I wrote before, I finally succumbed to other bloggers the powers that be and joined Twitter. Kate from Eucalyptus Pillow asked me to explain exactly what it is. I have to confess that I actually first heard about it at BlogHer Chicago two summers ago. Emphasis on the word heard. Everyone was talking about Twitter. Not that this would ever happen to me of course, but have you ever had the experience where you've blanked out during a critical moment when someone is telling you a story? Suzy was dating Jon and when you zone back in Suzy is now dating Stan and you're not sure what exactly happned but are too embarrassed to admit that you don't know because you weren't paying attention? That's sort of like Twitter and me. I knew that it involved typing one line sentences, but I was too embarrassed to say that I had no idea what exactly those sentences were about or why someone would want to read or write them.

I think the best way to explain Twitter is to compare it to the Facebook statuses. All you are doing is answering the question, "What are you doing?" You then type one sentence that describes what you are doing; you aren't allowed to use more than 140 characters. For example, my Twitter status the other day was "I can't figure out Twitter" or something to the that effect. Yesterday I twittered that I was on cat duty to make sure that the cats didn't jump through the giant hole in my wall. Anyone who follows me on Twitter would have been notified of my activity and wondered if I were drunk. Someone who knew me in person might be aware that the workmen scheduled to replace our living room picture window had shown up.

Unlike when someone reads your blog, you get notified if someone is following you on Twitter. There are security settings that can require someone to get permission before becoming a follower of yorus or can enable you to block specific people. You can use Twitter from your cell phone or your Facebook account.

One of my reasons for joining Twitter is that I have been the last to learn about several writing opportunities that others have heard about through Twitter. It's not as addictive as I had feared it might be, and let's face it, the last thing I need right now is to be twittering away while doing something critical like performing "cat scans." Perhaps that is not so critical; obviously someone tipped the cats off to the workmen's arrival since they were nowhere to be found. I think the informant was the neighbor's cat who is always hanging out on our lawn. I also think that cat is our older cat's boyfriend, but I don't have the hard evidence I need to convince the Big Giraffe that I'm right.

The biggest drawback that I've both heard and experienced it that once I've Twittered something, there doesn't seem to be much point in doing a blog post about it. Sure, Twitter is only a senentece and a blog post gives all the details, but it sort of feels like telling someone a joke after already revealing the punchline. I enjoy being on Twitter, though, just like I enoy reading everyone's status updates on Facebook. What can I say except that I'm nosy and I have ample time to find things like Twitter and Facebook fascinating, for example when watching windows or Tae Kwon Do or sitting for five minutes in a parking space because I got to preschool early!

A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: This one was passed on to me by Balex Elliot. When someone tells you they are for example @alexelliot and you have no idea what that means and are tempted to do a virtual Star Trek gesture back at them, it means that to find them on Twitter you should go to www.twitter.com/alexelliot.

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posted by Alex Elliot @ 6:22 PM   8 comments
8 Comments:

  • At 10/18/2008 12:52 AM, Blogger painted maypole said…

    an IRL friend of mine does twitter (as well as a large amount of virtual friends) and tried to explain to me why I should do it, and just made me resist it even more. like blogging isn't time sucking enough!

     

  • At 10/18/2008 7:08 AM, Blogger Goddess in Progress said…

    Yeah, I just can't seem to get into Twitter. Blogging and Facebook are plenty for now, I think. :-)

     

  • At 10/18/2008 1:30 PM, Blogger Kami said…

    at first I didn't get Twitter but now I quite like it....though I have not been blogging as much.

    Just started following you on Twitter.

     

  • At 10/18/2008 1:37 PM, Blogger Kate said…

    THANKS for the explanation! I was wondering was the heck that was about. I guess I just haven't caught on with the whole virtual networking thing, b/c I just haven't gotten into Facebook either. Blogging is about my extent at virtual/social friendships. Thanks again!

     

  • At 10/18/2008 6:42 PM, Blogger abrowncow said…

    i got on twitter because i had things i wanted to share during the day, but didn't think they qualified for a blog post. most of the time they were just one-liners or observations. i like it because with browser add-ons i can twitter site URLs or whats on my mind right from the address bar. there's also a plug-in that i use with my blog that twitters a "blog alert" when i post something new. you can also link twitter with your facebook status - but i haven't gone that far yet.

     

  • At 10/18/2008 7:10 PM, Blogger Zip n Tizzy said…

    I just joined twitter too. I found out about it the same way you did, but at blogher SF, where I met you!
    I also thought it would be a big time suck, but finally decided it was a good way to get connected, which it's proving to be.

     

  • At 10/19/2008 12:01 AM, Blogger Heather said…

    I have found some great new blogs, read some great posts and laughed a lot because of Twitter.

    It's also a major time-suck though.

     

  • At 10/20/2008 2:16 PM, Blogger jodifur said…

    love,love, love twitter. Just followed you.

     
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Name:Alex Elliot
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About Me:Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 6 year old and a 3 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe.
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For those of us who didn't get an instruction manual with our babies and for whom parenting hasn't always gone as planned. On a more serious note this blog is about supporting a woman's ability to make her own choices about parenting including the choice, for whatever reason, to bottle feed her babies formula.

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