Sunday, March 29, 2009

Twitter My Dog

After first hearing about Twitter at the Expanding our Boundaries conference, from Will Richardson, I have been fascinated by the application. I don’t do much with it as yet, but I like the read/write/Twitter continuum that you see with Will, Doug Peterson, Danika Barker and others who I have been following since late February. Most often these reader/writer/thinkers are passing along interesting links or referring us to a recent blog post. Great service, if you ask me.
This past week the Canadian print media has been aflutter over Twitter. I swear I never heard, or read, a single word about Twitter before, and now it’s one newspaper article after the next, with letters of response, blog posts, etc. Most of the commentary is mocking or downright negative, and refers to the more inane posts of everyone from Mayor David Miller to 50 Cent. Not at all like the wholesome and hearty tweets I have come to enjoy from the “expbound” nest.
What the vast majority of people seem to be using Twitter for reminds me of the way I talk to my dogs. “Hey Stella, now wasn’t that a good walk?” “Rocco, can you believe we actually got a parking spot near the library?” So if I talk to my dog, I’m what? Silly, neurotic, delusional? Only if someone catches me at it. But if I use Twitter to recount the minute by minute trivialities of my day to day life… wait, I’m silly, neurotic and self-absorbed, and many people will know this about me!
So please, if you ever feel that my future twittering has descended to the level of dog chat, immediately let me know. I’ll be back on the intellectual plane before you can say “liver treat.”

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Anne - you have really made me laugh! You are so right about twitter! Last night after hearing yet again about twitter, I went online and signed up to see what it is about. I will report, I have nothing smart to share/post or should I say twitter about yet, but I am certainly about where to go next. I would love to see who you are following! Can I do that?
Lisa
P.S. I talk to my dog and myself! I don't think my twittering was much more academically inclined...