Tag Archives: micro-blogging

Micro-blogging Practices – Twitter

Well, here I go again with another new adventure, this time it’s Twitter.  I didn’t have an account (never really saw the need for one) so the first thing to do was to create one. No problem there, but now that I have one what to do with it!  Part of the sign up process requires that you choose five accounts to follow. First problem, who or what to follow? I opted for a couple of news sites, museums, and astronaut Chris Hadfield (after all for the last few months the media has been filled with news of Commander Hadfield and his tweets). I did search for acquaintances who I thought might have a Twitter account but couldn’t find anyone, so nothing much to report there, so back to Commander Hadfield. I found it interesting to hear about his experiences not only in space but also once he returned to earth.  For example he tweeted about how he had to adjust to the effect of gravity on his tongue and how this affected his speech – not something I ever would have thought about! 

As far as trending, many of the topics seems to be concerned with celebrities and I’m afraid I don’t have the time or desire to follow their every move. The other trends seem to be news items. While I do like to know what is making news, I don’t think that having a minute to minute report of every last detail of an event is that important to me. Even if I had some connection to the event, I don’t think that Twitter would be the way I would want to receive information. That being said, if I was in a situation where Twitter was the best or only method of communication I’m sure I’d be glued to my device. I did follow the Bosma case as it was a story close to home, but I find that it is just as easy to scan Google’s news section as it has information posted in a timely manner.

I can’t see myself continuing with Twitter once I complete my course.  I don’t like to be connected every minute of the day as the idea of being tracked feels like an invasion of my privacy.  I also don’t feel the need to post mundane things about my life. I only used Twitter by logging in once a day (and logging out again when I was finished). I realize that this defeats the purpose behind receiving up-to-the-second information, but I guess between work, home, school and my personal life I don’t have that much time left to spend searching through information that probably doesn’t hold much interest for me.  I find that a quick scan of the news or searching for a specific topic of interest gives me all the info that I need or that I have time for.

I suppose if I had an ‘issue’ that I wanted to promote Twitter would be a good choice. Commander Hadfield is a case in point. He certainly showed that Twitter can be used as a valuable resource. Not only did he share his passion for science by tweeting with school children across the country and the world, but his use of this communication tool garnered almost daily news reports thereby drawing the attention of non-tweeters to the mission.

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