First Chronicles 12:32 mentions the “men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do“, and I’m jealous. As much as I try to keep up with what’s going on in the electronic universe that surrounds us, I do not always ‘get it’. I wish I understood the times and could tell which things were just fads and which things were the real deal.
And I’m not sure about Twitter. Right now it seems like the perfect social networking tool to tie everything together. Yet a lot of people resist it, even people who would like it (such as my friend Danny). Yes, there is Twitter nonsense and even abuse, but there are also some great uses for Twitter.
BRIEF. One of the great features of Twitter is the 140 character limit. This forces the author to compose his thought with brevity in mind. (Unless someone links together 10 Tweets – which often merits a BLOCK from me!).
QUICK. Twitter is instant, easily readable and replyable (is that a word?). E-mails that demand a thoughtful and longer response tend to sit in my inbox a long time forever. Texting is quick and to-the-point as well, but you do not always know who has a texting plan and you could be costing other people money. My Direct Messages from Twitter come to my cell phone as a text.
INTEREST. When you follow people of similar interests, you find out about things you like sooner. I can think of several news stories lately that I first heard about on Twitter from people who also were interested in them. The Christian Chronicle now has Twitter updates, allowing interested readers to have swift access to new stories (cofcnews).
CONNECTIVE. I occasionally check out Nearby Tweets so I can connect up with local people using Twitter. You can easily find your friends who are already using Twitter. You can connect with others who are in the same field you are, or in whom you are interested. There are Tweet-ups in various locations where you can meet Twitter followers in person.
SEARCHABLE. You can search through Twitter for posts of interest to you. I love to search for #americanidol while I’m watching American Idol. I can enjoy commentary from around the country as we all watch a favorite show. (The # is a hashtag that allows Twitter to gather together topics being posted all over).
INTERACTIVE. Every time I update my Twitter status, it updates my FaceBook status (except when I begin my message directed at a particular person such as @bradpalmore … then it will not go through to FaceBook). In addition, my Twitter updates are located on my blog (take a look to the right … you’ll see them!). So, I’m able to update in three places with one short post. There have been other tools that spread the posts even farther, but these suit my needs.
PERSONAL. My tweets are about my life and friends. It’s a totally volunteer thing to follow me, so if there are any disinterested people, they can unfollow! I like it that my mom, sister in law, and one of my stepsisters update Twitter, so I can keep up with them. I enjoy hearing the thoughts of others and what’s going on in other people’s lives.
ANXIETYLESS. I notice that many blogs are not being updated as often as they used to be. For some, the flash has worn off. But for others I’ve talked to, there is a certain axiety about what to put on the blog. I think blogging is here to stay, but it will boil down to those who seriously have a purpose and reason to keep sharing their thoughts. Twitter, on the other hand, is anxietyless. You can keep up with friends and others by simple 140 character posts without having to write a philosophical treatice.
ACCESSIBLE. There are many Twitter ‘clients’ which allow you to make full use of Twitter. I currently use TWEETDECK on my computer. I keep it running and it lets me know when there are new tweets to read. Since my screen is wide, I keep it where I can see it and there’s still plenty of room for my other windows. I have also used Twitterfox with good success. I use Twitterfon on my iPhone. I occasionally use Monitter, where I can select three or four topics that are trending and follow them. This is helpful if something significant is in the news or going on in the world. There are many others from which to choose. I would not think many people actually use the Twitter homepage – but maybe I’m wrong about that.
So, as someone who wishes he better “understood the times“, I could be wrong … but I think Twitter is the way to go for many people. Twitter ties so many things together. Watch my friend Chris Gallagher’s blog … he promises a free e-book on using Twitter soon!
Thanks for reading,
John
Excellent post John!
It amazes me how creative ppl can get due to the 140 character limit. And concerning E-mail, the same goes for me. I tend to get quite a number of mails each day and typically let them sit until at some point I take a little time to answer a ton at once.
Keep it up and all the best!
HK
Herman, thanks for coming by the blog!
Very Nice Post!
I’m still not so sure about the whole “Twitter Revolution.” But ever so slowly you seem to be drawing me over to the dark side.
The force is strong with this one! C’mon Neil… you’ll love it! Thanks for coming by the blog! John
I see you are putting the pressure on me early! The e-Book should be ready in two days! The draft is available now and the final should be out Thursday at the latest!
Chris, glad to give you the motivation to get that thing finished! lol John
What gets me about it is how some people grossly overuse the status updates. Do I really need to know you are feeding the baby at the dinner table with your in-law? I have seriously seen that and I remember wondering how they updated their status while feeding a baby at the dinner table. That is just way too much information…It is not that I am not interested in what is going on in people’s lives but we already have too much information to handle in life without all of that! Others, like you, do it well.
Matt, it is true that some overdo it, but you can always decide not to follow them! Thanks for stopping by! John
I’m not sure but I think I can do almost all of that with the facebook app on my iphone. I just don’t see the need.
Ah, an unbeliever. Well, Facebook is somewhat limited on iPhone, not quite as interactive as on the computer. I think there are some similar functions, but Twitter (I think) aids FaceBook functionality while allowing you to connect to a different group of people. I will consider this further! Thanks for stopping by, friend! John
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I am loving Twitter. I downloaded Tweetdeck when I first started Twittering but had no use for it since I was only following about 20 people. Now that I am following several companies such as weird news, my local newspaper, Twittertips, etc…, Tweetdeck is really helping me by letting me have groupings so that if I just want to see the updates of my friends, I dont have to rummage through several updates from the companies. I like Twitter better than Facebook status updates because I feel like if someone I know from years ago asks to be my friend on Facebook I feel compelled to accept that friendship. For some reason, if someone follows me on Twitter, I feel no compelling to follow him back just because he is following me. While I still use FB a lot, I dont really look at the status updates because there are updates from too many people I dont want updates from. I have unfollowed several people on Twitter already because of consistent updates that annoy me and I feel no remorse for it and I dont have to worry that they will ask me to follow them again like the time I unfriended several people on FB and had friend requests from half of them just a few days later. That is a very personal reason, but it is one of my reasons none the less. Reason #2 for me why Twitter updates are better than FB updates is that I get more information that actually informs my day through Twitter updates. I have read several articles, gotten great deals on purchases, and learned about ministry practices so much in just my few weeks on Twitter, something that rarely happened in my years of using Facebook and almost year of having FB on my Blackberry and reading status updates frequently. I think John is a great Twitterer and he is one of the people that pushed me over the edge as I was pushing against what I thought was a dumb fad. Thanks bro! Have you seen what Mark Driscoll doing with Twitter at his church? Would you think of doing something similar?
Twitter? What is that?
John, you have gone off the tweet end….
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