Oh Twitter, how I love thee!
140 characters to say anything and everything I could possibly come up with!
I recently read in Vanity Fair about the rising popularity of this social phenomenon. Twitter serves no financial purpose to anyone using it (at face value, anyway. I'm sure Ivanka Trump has upped her jewelry sales some by promoting them via Twitter), so what's all the fuss?
I was adamantly opposed to Twitter myself, until about a year ago. I was talked into it by my husband and another techie friend. They both follow gads of people and have a huge following themselves. Not the 1,000,000+ followers Ashton Kutcher has, mind you, but a following nonetheless. So I jumped on the bandwagon, damn near pulling a groin muscle in the process. I set up my page, uploaded a picture, configured my settings, and off I went into the great big unknown world of Twitter.
A year later, I'm still in love with it. Probably moreso now. I have started blogging with much more regularity and intent so Twitter is a nice way to let people know that I've just posted something to said blog. I have a lot of friends that do this. One, in particular, is a celebrity in her own right. Or, as Vanity Fair likes to call her, a Twilebrity. She has two very remarkable blogs herself, one about dating and another about bacon (all foods, really) and is perpetually being asked to contribute to other blogs, online mags, etc. She's made a name for herself, for certain. She's a great writer, witty and clever and not at all ashamed to put everything out there for her loyal readers to digest immediately. So could she have found the "celebrity" she has without Twitter? Probably. She's that good. But it might not have happened as quickly as it has. And in a world dominated by immediacy, why would anyone want to wait for something when they can have or do it right away?
So I said to my husband over dinner last night that I wanted to be a "Twilebrity." I said it a little jokingly, but part of me (the bigger part) really does want that. I love to write and I want people to want to hear or read what I have to say. Is that so wrong? There are tons of people out there who have enormous followings because of the interesting things they say.
Twitter is like a permanent, digital version of a flashmob, I think. I mean, someone says one thing and they go absolutely viral. There's a girl that spoke at an event in Boulder, CO a couple months ago, Erika Napoletano, who is a solid riot! And interestingly, I think she contributes to some of the same online gigs that the above-mentioned friend does. So that's interesting.
For someone like my husband, Twitter works magic when he's promoting his upcoming book release or his own blog musings. My best friend is a musician in Nashville, so she uses it to update her tour dates and additional performers at many of her shows (the spring tour is the tour I've been most excited about so far, but for personal reasons). And some people just use Twitter as an outlet for bitching, complaining, or just getting something off their chests.
So as much as I love Twitter and want to be a mini-celebrity, I still haven't figured out what Twitter is for me. It's a work in progress. But expect to get a tweet about this post, if you follow...
But here are some people I think you should follow, if you're into the Twitter thing:
@ladygaga
@PressSec (yes, the White House press secretary)
@TheOnion
@otherbadhabits
@ChrisCuomo
@danieltosh
140 characters to say anything and everything I could possibly come up with!
I recently read in Vanity Fair about the rising popularity of this social phenomenon. Twitter serves no financial purpose to anyone using it (at face value, anyway. I'm sure Ivanka Trump has upped her jewelry sales some by promoting them via Twitter), so what's all the fuss?
I was adamantly opposed to Twitter myself, until about a year ago. I was talked into it by my husband and another techie friend. They both follow gads of people and have a huge following themselves. Not the 1,000,000+ followers Ashton Kutcher has, mind you, but a following nonetheless. So I jumped on the bandwagon, damn near pulling a groin muscle in the process. I set up my page, uploaded a picture, configured my settings, and off I went into the great big unknown world of Twitter.
A year later, I'm still in love with it. Probably moreso now. I have started blogging with much more regularity and intent so Twitter is a nice way to let people know that I've just posted something to said blog. I have a lot of friends that do this. One, in particular, is a celebrity in her own right. Or, as Vanity Fair likes to call her, a Twilebrity. She has two very remarkable blogs herself, one about dating and another about bacon (all foods, really) and is perpetually being asked to contribute to other blogs, online mags, etc. She's made a name for herself, for certain. She's a great writer, witty and clever and not at all ashamed to put everything out there for her loyal readers to digest immediately. So could she have found the "celebrity" she has without Twitter? Probably. She's that good. But it might not have happened as quickly as it has. And in a world dominated by immediacy, why would anyone want to wait for something when they can have or do it right away?
So I said to my husband over dinner last night that I wanted to be a "Twilebrity." I said it a little jokingly, but part of me (the bigger part) really does want that. I love to write and I want people to want to hear or read what I have to say. Is that so wrong? There are tons of people out there who have enormous followings because of the interesting things they say.
Twitter is like a permanent, digital version of a flashmob, I think. I mean, someone says one thing and they go absolutely viral. There's a girl that spoke at an event in Boulder, CO a couple months ago, Erika Napoletano, who is a solid riot! And interestingly, I think she contributes to some of the same online gigs that the above-mentioned friend does. So that's interesting.
For someone like my husband, Twitter works magic when he's promoting his upcoming book release or his own blog musings. My best friend is a musician in Nashville, so she uses it to update her tour dates and additional performers at many of her shows (the spring tour is the tour I've been most excited about so far, but for personal reasons). And some people just use Twitter as an outlet for bitching, complaining, or just getting something off their chests.
So as much as I love Twitter and want to be a mini-celebrity, I still haven't figured out what Twitter is for me. It's a work in progress. But expect to get a tweet about this post, if you follow...
But here are some people I think you should follow, if you're into the Twitter thing:
@ladygaga
@PressSec (yes, the White House press secretary)
@TheOnion
@otherbadhabits
@ChrisCuomo
@danieltosh
As a friend told me when I accused Twitter of being a tool for narcissism:
ReplyDelete(from @hroulo)
@tdnewton Talk abt ourselves is narcissistic. Talk abt others is gossip. Talk abt ideas is promoting. Those r the choices on Twitter #s'okay