I have to confess that the first time I heard about Twitter I thought it was the silliest service imaginable. And the second time. And the third. Heck, I even signed up for the site and still thought it was silly. More than silly, I actually figured it would add about as much value to my life as playing video games. I had this vision of my cell phone being flooded with “I’m watching TV” messages.
I have to confess that I’m slowly becoming a believer in Twitter. What ultimately pushed me over the edge? I met some new colleagues who are knee-deep in the trenches of driving organizational change with collaborative web technology. In the course of exchanging contact info they passed along their Twitter IDs.
“Excuse me? YOU guys use Twitter?”
Suddenly I felt old. Past my prime. I had become that guy I never wanted to be: the guy who “doesn’t get it”. In a state of panic I vowed to start Twittering that night and prove to the world that I still have it.
So what have I learned? Well, the jury is still out, but I think this service is here to stay for me. Like most people, I have that occasional observation/stray thought/idea that I want to tell people about. YouTube videos and blog posts are great for communicating a certain level of info, but sometimes I just want to blurt out something. Or pass along an article I read in Wired. Somehow email and blog posts don’t work for this type of communicating.
But the best part of Twitter so far is what I’m hearing about.
I don’t really care what most people are thinking about. This isn’t to suggest that I think most people don’t have much to offer - they do. They just don’t take the time and put forth the energy to think critically about the world.
But there are a handful of friends and colleagues that I really want to hear from. I want to know about the conference they are attending. The new web service they just tried. The cool business idea that popped into their heads. The thought they had while standing in the subway. Why they want to reverse aging.
What could be better than a bite-sized gem of ideas from people I really respect? I found myself actually reaching out to these type of people (it is a small list) and asking them to consider Twittering. Talk about the zealotry of the recently converted.
I don’t think tweets (that’s a twitter message as I’ve now learned) will replace emails, blogs, phone calls, lunches or existing communications. I think it is another way to interact, collaborate, and share.
My feed is at my feed is at http://twitter.com/kevindewalt if you want to follow my ramblings.
As I said, the jury is still out. Maybe my recent obsession with Twitter is just a techie’s version of mid-life crisis, a desperate attempt to show the world I still have it.
I get it, really I do…
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