I have a confession to make---I really don't like Facebook or the chatter that goes on in that vortex, and I don't really get the appeal. Millions of people on Facebook, a movie, and I'm sure a book will be forthcoming, but what is the BFD. Yes, I'm on Facebook, but never ever check my account anymore. I figure if someone said something days ago, it CAN'T be relevant anymore. I think all conversations should be limited to Twitter's 140 characters, or less. In person, on the phone, at the office, in the classroom, all communication. I shouldn't have to use more than 140 characters to get my 2-year old to behave properly, or sit on the potty.
Unfortunately, I cannot convince my dearest besties of the point of Twitter . They just don't get it. They fail to see the blast that one can have just reading the limited rantings of their favorite NFL player, or the musings of a mother clear across the globe about how potty training is practically killing her spirit one day at time.
Maybe it's Twitter's simplicity that confuses people. Twitter's world begins with the @ sign and once you get an account, which is your name or any silly name you create, then you just start talking, using just 140 characters or less. You say things and others see your comments and they hit you back, or better yet follow back. Once they are followers of you then they see everything you say. Goal: get as many followers as possible so cleverness and a message are key! What about this is so hard that my best friend "just can't get into it." My other bestie just flat out refuses to leave the garden and cafe of Facebook and join the real world of Twitter.
Twitter has gotten a bad reputation for being all about randomness, when in fact it's specific, personal and much more intimate than Facebook. The immediacy is one reason for this. I can instantly reach out to celebs, and get an instant response. On many of occasions Chad Ochocinco has invited 100 of his closest friends to dinner in one hour, and had I been in Los Angeles, or Miami at those moments well let's just say I would be eating good. This is only possible with Twitter.
One night I found myself sitting at home on a lonely Saturday when HBO was premiering "The Hangover." With a simple swipe of my iPhone I soon realized that thousands were at home just like me watching. Celebs and just regular folk. Everybody was commenting about almost every scene, and I nearly busted a gut laughing. I ended up having a blast watching one of the funniest movies with a few thousand friends. I soon started following Mike Tyson, though he has yet to tweet back.
Twitter's celebrity factor was the original reason I opened an account. Ochocinco is his name, and he's still my favorite tweeter because nothing about his life is off limits. He wakes up and tweets, he eats and tweets, he tweets to his friends that eventually become my friends. And on occasion he's even tweeted me. The day he followed me was the pinnacle. I will forever be his biggest fan for that one.
Beyond the celebrity factor Twitter has brought me into contact with very dear, ordinary people doing interesting things all over the world. I found myself tweeting with a lad from England and we talked about the old neighborhood I used to live in there. No barriers between me and a young, white, male Brit just 140 characters. I love it. I remember at the beginning of the personal computing and Internet revolution that it was said that this medium will remove all barriers of race and gender, and in many ways it has. Twitter is proof.
Unfortunately, I cannot convince my dearest besties of the point of Twitter . They just don't get it. They fail to see the blast that one can have just reading the limited rantings of their favorite NFL player, or the musings of a mother clear across the globe about how potty training is practically killing her spirit one day at time.
Maybe it's Twitter's simplicity that confuses people. Twitter's world begins with the @ sign and once you get an account, which is your name or any silly name you create, then you just start talking, using just 140 characters or less. You say things and others see your comments and they hit you back, or better yet follow back. Once they are followers of you then they see everything you say. Goal: get as many followers as possible so cleverness and a message are key! What about this is so hard that my best friend "just can't get into it." My other bestie just flat out refuses to leave the garden and cafe of Facebook and join the real world of Twitter.
Twitter has gotten a bad reputation for being all about randomness, when in fact it's specific, personal and much more intimate than Facebook. The immediacy is one reason for this. I can instantly reach out to celebs, and get an instant response. On many of occasions Chad Ochocinco has invited 100 of his closest friends to dinner in one hour, and had I been in Los Angeles, or Miami at those moments well let's just say I would be eating good. This is only possible with Twitter.
One night I found myself sitting at home on a lonely Saturday when HBO was premiering "The Hangover." With a simple swipe of my iPhone I soon realized that thousands were at home just like me watching. Celebs and just regular folk. Everybody was commenting about almost every scene, and I nearly busted a gut laughing. I ended up having a blast watching one of the funniest movies with a few thousand friends. I soon started following Mike Tyson, though he has yet to tweet back.
Twitter's celebrity factor was the original reason I opened an account. Ochocinco is his name, and he's still my favorite tweeter because nothing about his life is off limits. He wakes up and tweets, he eats and tweets, he tweets to his friends that eventually become my friends. And on occasion he's even tweeted me. The day he followed me was the pinnacle. I will forever be his biggest fan for that one.
Beyond the celebrity factor Twitter has brought me into contact with very dear, ordinary people doing interesting things all over the world. I found myself tweeting with a lad from England and we talked about the old neighborhood I used to live in there. No barriers between me and a young, white, male Brit just 140 characters. I love it. I remember at the beginning of the personal computing and Internet revolution that it was said that this medium will remove all barriers of race and gender, and in many ways it has. Twitter is proof.
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