It’s like your first day in school in a new town. You start out knowing no one. In a few weeks’ time, fate has brought you together with a diverse gaggle of new classmates…or friends…or in this case, disembodied “followers.”
The big difference here is that most of these new friends are people you’ve never met. All you see is their headshot or logo or some very cool identifying flair.
Such is my Twitter family. A quirky flock of nearly a hundred sisters and brothers gabbing (tweeting) about what’s happening in their work and lives..in real time.
It’s like Thanksgiving Day every day. An animated one-upping, ticker-tape stream of information. Everything laser-beamed and packaged in 140-character sound bites, like this random sample of some of today’s micro-posts:
- Unboxing the Kindle 2. Can’t believe how branded the packaging experience is!
- Breathe your way through the day.
- Some good blogging tips here:
- “There comes a moment when you have to stop revving up the car and shove it into gear.” – David Mahoney
- Stepped in cat puke, barefoot. Well, that’ll wake you up fast.
- Q: What animal rotates at least 200 times after it dies? A: Rotisserie chicken.
- Looking for experts in education, autism, Mental Health, to do shows in April and May.
- CELEBRATE what you DID cross off your list today; stop beating yourself up over what you didn’t.
I entered into Twitter with great trepidation (as I do every time my brain has to integrate yet another social networking phenom). I think I heard it described as a “massive cocktail party.” Ouch. Sounds like pure hell if you’re a sensitive-to-noise-dial-down-your-life-cultivate-harmony introvert like me.
But one month into this, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the whole thing. Here’s what I love about it [in no particular order]:
- Because Twitter is so immediate, there’s no time for formality or small-talk; people seem real, direct, even charming, and very human.
- A few minutes of just reading down the list of latest downloads, I feel happy somehow. All these individual personalities as a collective unit radiate a fresh energy to me. [Mind you I’ve had to weed out and “unfollow” the more annoying ones.]
- There’s no getting around 140-character limit. Keeping messages short and sweet rules. This is excellent practice for people like me who love to meander.
- I love how some tweeters say goodnight to me. I feel like I’m being tucked into bed.
- I love receiving and learning about great tips.
- I love the writing style in some of them. Some messages are so well-crafted and beautiful. Pure poetry.
- I love how some of them make me laugh out loud.
- I love the way some inspirational messages seem to speak to problem I might be having that day.
- I love that the Dalai Lama and Barack Obama sit at my table with everyone else. How cool is that! When I can’t seem to rouse some of my colleagues to follow me, I am comforted by the fact that the His Holiness jumped right in.
What can I say. I love Twitter!
Last night, in a moment of pure excitement and gratitude, I entered this:
SpaciousSelf: “Scanning your one-liners…about hair care, frustrations, news flashes, I feel like I’m home. Thank you Twitter family. Love you guys.”
And immediately after I clicked the update button, these two messages from His Holiness the Dalai Lama popped up on the screen:
Hisholiness: “We are born and reborn countless number of times, and it is possible that each being has been our parent at one time or another.”
Hisholiness: “Therefore, it is likely that all beings in this universe have familial connections.”
You gotta love it!
You’re invited to join me and my Twitter family. And I’d be honored to follow you in return.
xoxo tweets,
SpaciousSelf
