The Seduction of Twitter
information August 14th, 2009161 days.
That’s how much time has elapsed between my last post on March 6th and today. I’ve felt the pull back to this space but at times it felt like, well, work. Writing isn’t a fluid activity for me so the thought of sitting down to compose my thoughts into a coherent post became more and more of a barrier. The rewards though, when I did hit the “publish” button were tremendous. Blogging is a mental and tactile exercise that forces me to slow down and think a little more deeply about a subject that I would otherwise skate over. There is really something to the link between a tactile activity such as writing, understanding and memory.
So why tweet? I’ll tell you. It’s the 140 characters and the quick interplay between and among *my network. It’s fast, relevant, and oh so rewarding. The gems that are uncovered are rich and have led me to the danah boyd’s (aka zephoria on Twitter) dissertation on social networking and teen behavior, Scott McLeod’s insightful posts about leadership and his work in the trenches, and let’s not forget StephenAtHome ( aka Stephen Colbert) for a little levity. I’ve even sent out an S.O.S. tweet pleading for assistance with a klugy Word Press plugin. My network didn’t let me down - within 5 minutes I had help and within 10 minutes the problem was solved.
So now that I can say with absolute conviction that Twitter is a powerful and necessary tool, I’ll revisit this blog and the exercise of writing. It seems though that I’m not the only one who’s trending back to their blog. Check out these posts about this very topic:
http://siliconangle.com/ver2/2009/08/12/blogs-are-back
* My network is 90% educational technology and education professionals.
