The instant we (the social networking collective) began to tire of clicking through hundreds of pictures of old high school friends while looking to find a slice of nostalgia or vindication within our beloved Facebook, we were given a shiny new toy. The 140-character got-to-have-it satisfying solution emerged: Twitter. Call it cross-training for social networking enthusiasts, or the super-fast fix. Some of us even turned our backs on our reliable but rather demanding friend Facebook. We cut back on visitation and fed it only status updates, made easily available of course by our new friend Twitter.
Just as my carpal tunnel was starting to fade thanks to a renewed interest in the outdoors and talking to people in person, I decided to jump on the bandwagon. I got on Twitter. Now I'm in it, I'm on it, and I'm all about it. I've got my bright orange background that matches the chair I'm lounging in as my profile pic. Oh yeah, I planned that. Concise cleverness, or at least the attempt, is key when you've got only 140 characters to prove a point with friends and strangers alike. Facebook is the nerdy overblown Harvard know-it-all. Twitter is the fast cool friend who gives just what you want and nothing more. I'm addicted.
10 Reasons you know you're addicted to Twitter
1. You know what at least 3 people you don't know had for breakfast.
2. You're obsessed with how many followers you have or don't have and possess a master plan for getting your numbers up.
3. You search popular news sites just to link information that makes you look smart.
4. You spend more than 2 minutes planning out the cleverness of each tweet and give yourself a hi-5 when you figure out new ways to shrink words.
5. You've got regular Twitter, tweet deck, and twitter mobile for complete uninterrupted professional tweeting.
6. You get in frequent back and forth Twitter arguments over senseless topics that you actually don't care about. This starts to enter your real life.
7. Twitter is your home page.
8. You paid the Wi-Fi fee on Virgin America so you could get extra cool points by tweeting at 36,000 feet. It's the new 5 mile high club.
9. You've already tweeted about this post.
10. You've tweeted at least 3 times before getting to #10.
www.IntimacyRetreats.com/sudoku.htm
Now, alas, I have no time for Sudoku....!
The trick is to build a community of Twitter of people who are interesting and who share great information--just like you choose who you invite to a dinner party! I actually get alot of great info on books, politics, and now savings & fashion via Twitter. I am a fan! As Clapton says, "Its in the way that you use it!."
For those outside of that conflicted country, it is a window--albeit a small one since the June elections--that allows a somewhat more microscopic and personalized view of what's happening there, as Iranians struggle with their desire and demand for more freedom and independence.
It is extremely dangerous for Iranians to tweet anything on Twitter, or to post videos and commentary on what's happening there, but there are some very brave souls who do it in spite of the fact that their lives are in danger just by having a Twitter account.
Here are the Twitter names of some people who have posted fascinating and heartbreaking accounts of the brutal and vicious crackdown following the contested elections (just put twitter.com/ in front of the name without the @ sign):
@OxfordGirl
@IranAnon
@StopAhmadi
@IranRiggedElect
@TehranBureau
@omidhabibinia
Here are 2 who have stopped posting, possibly because they have been caught, or they just decided to not take any further risks (we hope it's the latter):
@Change_for_Iran
@PersianKiwi
They were once prolific and passionate posters. Click on the bar that says "More", and keep clicking on each new one that appears, in order to see tweets they've made in the past.
http://twitter.com/StopPeripheral
It has to be the most asinine tool I have ever seen. Kind of like a modern Ham radio but actually a step backward. In the 70s it was the CB craze; people could get up on their soapboxes and scream at the heavens and hope that someone heard them and maybe they would even answer back. The number of folks that had a CBs in their cars in the late 70s was silly; many even had home based units. It was a way to anonymously speak to the world; kind of like these forums and blogs. I guess people's desire to state their opinion and be heard will never go away. So, if anything else twitter may serve as a way to release pent up anger and frustration that might otherwise used to go postal at the office; twitter away America.