I am old. I don’t tweet. That’s basically it.
I can’t continually look at my smart phone. It’s locked in my teacher desk, while I maintain desperate hope that I’ve remembered to turn off the ringer. I can’t even imagine how embarrassing it would be if I forgot and my phone was tweeting all day. I’m so old I probably couldn’t hear it. Not to mention bad for my street cred as a disciplinarian and buster of illicit phones in classrooms.
Didn’t Al Gore create the Internet so that I could look anything up that I needed to know? And then Mark Zuckerberg made it even easier for me to ask ALL of my friends for help. Why do I need Twitter?
I know more about my grown-up kids than both my parents combined and all of their friends ever knew about me. I like that, but do they? I don’t think they want me to have access to their Twitter lives as well. Facebook is enough disclosure.
Blogger Arik Hanson says that Twitter is a time-sucking black hole. That’s the last thing I need in my life.
If you think I’m missing something, please let me know. It has been known to happen that I’m the clueless one in the bunch.
This post is linked up to the Why I… carnival at Vanderbilt Wife. After reading and commenting on my post, go visit the Wife and read what others have to say!
I’m not really a tweeter, either. I have an account, but it *is* a giant black hole of time suck!!
I don’t think teachers can tweet. Unlike Facebook, you don’t control your twitter followers. So any and all of your students could follow your tweets. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, the first time you’re in a bar sipping chardonnay……
You are so right. I’d rather have chardonnay. OOH — that sounds like a good title for another day!
My first experience with Twitter was like a bad first date. I had been told by a social media guru in LA that Twitter was THE place to be to keep up with people in the publishing industry. I made an account, logged on, tweeted once and then dropped it like a hot potato.
I thought the interface was confusing. I didn’t understand how it was any different than updating my status on Facebook. I didn’t understand the language (RT, FF, WW etc.) or why “tagging” didn’t involve chasing each other around a park.
Twitter and I lost touch for a year until I was in LA again and being told the same line as before. This time around I took a minute to get to know Twitter and learn the ropes. It turns out that it has become my most valued form of social media. Twitter and I are picking out china patterns.
It’s my source of information. It’s where agents and editors announce what they are up to. It allows me to interact with them in #askagent and #askyaed chats. It connects me to other writers and authors doling out advice and being supportive.
Is it a time suck? Absolutely. Yet, for someone in my position it’s a necessary time suck. I’m not sure what experience a casual user would have. If you “follow” news, celebrities, businesses, musicians and such, you can read your Twitter feed like a news source without ever posting a single tweet.
To tweet or not to tweet, is a question only you can answer.
I love that you took the time to honestly reply. We would never have found the time at school. And an allusion makes my heart “twitter.”
I agree that Twitter is where I find most of my news and toss out general questions that people in my FB stream might not know the answer to.
But really I think Twitter is most beneficial if you’re trying to build your blog – it’s good for relationships and for sharing posts. People might not subscribe, but they’ll often click on a Twitter link. It’s less commitment to follow someone on Twitter than to subscribe to their blog.
I agree with what Jessie said. It’s great to leave a link to a blog post. Also you can make your account private and only accept people who you want to see your tweets.
I like twitter, but I don’t have Facebook.
I signed up for Twitter to follow PW. I’ve never tweeted though. A couple of weeks ago, a friend of ours signed up and I received a message that he was “following me” on Twitter. I thought: “boy, is he going to be disappointed!”
I don’t get it either.
As evidence that I am clueless, when I first read your comment I figured that you had typed PW instead of VW, as my first thought always goes to Vanderbilt Wife. Then I realized you meant the fabulously popular Pioneer Woman. At least it wasn’t a total DUH on my part. Thanks for visiting!