Just back from a lovely, fairly relaxing, weekend in a tent (2 different tents actually) with some of my best friends in the whole wide world. I probably drank too much, but if I did anything embarrassing, none of you have been willing to tell me about it. I climbed two fairly insignificant hills which took an altogether disproportionate amount of effort, no doubt due to the desk-bound life I have been reluctantly living of late (and not helped by the drinking too much). I played boule/petanque and got eaten alive by the midges. A weekend well spent.
This week - a Newbie's take on Twitter.
I have succumbed. I don't know if it's a good idea at all, but I have done it. I am on Twitter. I've gone for a boring real name handle, @Kirsten_G_F, through nothing more than a lack of imagination. Rowan Tree Tents will likely hit Twitter too, be warned. L's Aunt thinks it's a good idea, and she strikes me as someone whose advice I should take, so here we are.
I still like Radio 4's Tweet of the Day better.
I'll admit I'm not really sure how to make it work, both in a "how in heck do you work this thing" way and also in a "how can I make it work for me" way. So I'll start out somewhat tentatively, on account of how I'd rather not embarrass myself. I'm imaging it's all too easy to put something stupid out there. And if there is a stupid things that can be found and done, I'm the one to do it.
I have been on Twitter for 1 day now. That's not much, but I have noticed some things that I can share with you all.
My observations on the medium.
- 99% of my feed is Stephen Fry, and I'm very ok with that.
- Twitter posts aren't much to look at, so I'm going to intersperse this list with pictures of my weekend. Because it's my blog so neh.
- 140 characters is enough. You either keep it simple or you find a clever way to work within the restraints. It narrows the brief and that seems to make people thing more carefully about the words they string together.
- How the hell does Twitter know to show me a bunch of people I already know in real life? My Facebook account runs out of a different email address.
Not actually on fire. |
- Twitter bios are hilarious. They lay bare your priorities about what you want people to picture when they think of you. We all want to be witty.
- Christian Twitter bios are all the same "Following Jesus. Engaged to @husband. All opinions are his." "God is my Superhero. Slightly cooler than you. Husband of @silentwife001".
- It's all so damn public. My employers are on here. My Minister is on here (but he's only posted twice since 2011). My parents could well be on here for all I know. I'm gonna have to be nice. You are live on air. Please do not swear.
- Following people is not the same as befriending them on Facebook. It's more one-directional. Short of blocking someone, there's not "acceptance" of a follower. It feels a little like creeping up on people, but it's the way the whole medium works, so it must be right.
- It might take me while to get used to using the word "follow" in a capacity that doesn't mean "Jesus" or "Court order".
- It's fast. The more people you follow, the smaller snapshot of time you're gonna see in any one visit. If you don't post when someone is there to see it, they're never going to see it. Unless you get the app, in which case I think I'd end up ignoring it a lot.
- Recommendations go a long way, and that feel a bit more "real world" than Fb. I can really see how I'd wind up following a huge number of people/groups just for interest value.
- It's not just procrastination any more. This is the real world, in a bizarre microcosm. The FutureLearn course I'm still trying to keep up with, Nutrition and Health, seems to be making a lot of the fact it is engaging with social media. Heck, even L's office has an account. @UoAEpi, should you care to find out. They mostly just post pictures of cake.
- And that's ok. Everyone likes cake, right?
Happy Tuesday!
Coming up this week. L goes away on a work thing, I don't, H moves in, I have to take a tent to Ellon. But it's all going to be ok because I just made enough lasagne to eat it for every meal till the weekend. :)