I'm all a-Twitter

I've been trying to figure out what to do with the latest social networking site, Twitter.

Falling somewhere in the continuum between early adopter and Luddite as it relates to technology, I've embraced Facebook pretty enthusiastically, as noted in previous blog entries. And now I've started a Twitter account, but I've had a little more difficult time trying to figure out exactly how it can be useful to me.

Descriptions of Twitter that I've seen call it a "microblogging" site, where you can post updates called "tweets," ostensibly in answer to the question: "What are you doing right now?" It's supposed to be similiar to the Facebook "status update," but I'm finding most people don't use it that way. Whatever you put there, it has to be brief, as you have a limit of 140 characters.

The application allows you to follow other people's Twitter updates and to be followed by others. So far I'm more of a follower than a followee. And I'm using it actually as a pretty neat professional newswire, as most of the Twitter pages I'm following have to do with journalism and public relations. I also get constant news updates from American, English and German media sites that have a Twitter feed. (I don't have a lot of pretensions, but please allow me this one. When I get an update from Der Speigel or Deutsche Welle, I really do know what it's saying. Really.) And my updates so far have pretty much been invitations to read my updated blog.

Similarly to Facebook, you can converse publicly with other people, but I haven't tried that yet. But I just figured out how to send a "tweet" to my page from my cell phone. I enjoyed playing around with that technology at several athletic events at Wingate yesterday, sending the scores of our baseball and basketball games to my page. Later, it occurred to me that my messages probably weren't targeted to an audience that was interested in our athletic events. It reminded me of my early days on the Internet, where I could access all this neat information, but couldn't figure out how to use it.

My early impression is that Twitter is a little more of a "wild frontier" than Facebook, where you seem to have a little more control over who can see your information. I get some pretty random folks signing on to follow my updates (a Charlotte area dodgeball organization decided they were interested in me for some reason), but they seem pretty harmless so usually I don't block them.

But issues related to the transparency of the communication have already arisen on Twitter, just as they have on other social networking sites and online communication. Here is a link to a story which I found with the help of my Twitter feed, about a journalist who ended up having to apologize for a profanity-laced outburst in a Twittering conversation with a source that went public.

(Advisory: You have to click through to a couple of links to get to a "capture" of this actual exchange. If you're offended by strong language you may be satisfied just to read the commentary about it.)

http://blogs.journalism.co.uk/editors/2009/02/12/financial-post-apologises-for-reporters-twitter-outburst/

It's a good lesson in the importance of being nice online. This stuff not only spreads quickly, it also hangs around -- even if you think you've deleted it.

The anonymity offered by the Internet encourages too much boorish behavior these days, promoting verbal exchanges that you wouldn't think of engaging in face-to-face with someone. I weep for the future of humanity whenever I see the reader comments at the bottom of a news story or a YouTube video. Incivility combined with bad information and worse grammar is not an attractive package.

But that's another post for another day. For now, I'll take any suggestions anyone has on how to deal with Twitter. I'll follow you, if you'll follow me.

WIth a little help from my Facebook friends

As milestones go it's not a huge one. But I added my 300th Facebook friend this week.

For someone of my age, I was a fairly early adopter of Facebook and I'd say at this stage I'm pretty much addicted, spending some time each day on the social networking site.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Facebook, it's a website which allows you to connect in a variety of ways with those who accept you as a "friend." There's an e-mail type function where you can exchange messages with others. I also check my "Wall," a public area on your site where people can post comments to you and which provides a "news feed" type of rolling update of what you've been doing on the site -- what applications you've added, groups you've joined and whose "friend" you've become. You can put pictures of yourself and others on your site.

It's all an interesting lesson in the concept of privacy, and how our world is becoming more transparent. People have more ways than ever before of finding things out about you. At Wingate, we particularly have this conversation with job-hunting upperclassmen -- don't put anything on the public areas of your page that someone might use to eliminate you as a candidate for employment.

One more thing that's possibly my favorite feature. You can also "update your status," letting people know what you're up to right now, whether it's a significant life development ("Steve and Marsha are getting married")or the most trivial and banal thing ("Keith is sitting and thinking")

So the addition of Friend No. 300 -- who will remain nameless to protect that person's privacy -- got me to thinking about what it means to have 300 friends on Facebook. Does that mean I actually have meaningful relationships with 300 people? I didn't know I knew 300 people... Who are these folks? (Also, one of these days I have to ask one of my students who has more than 1,100 friends how exactly you do that. Again, I'm three times as old and I'm SURE I don't know THAT many people.)

My friends are an interesting variety of folks. Some, like my wife, Jayne,who started her own page last year, are a daily part of my life. Most are either my Wingate students or, an even greater number, relatively recent former students, as you might expect. But I find myself now picking up friends from the former students from eight to 10 years ago, who are finally getting on board.

Some of these connections are current or former colleagues at Wingate. I recently had a friend request politely declined by a former co-worker who was trying to limit their Facebook page to people they knew on a more personal basis, high school friends, etc., which I thought was an interesting idea.

Journalists are increasingly using social networking sites as a reporting tool, so I have a network of former and current colleagues -- and sources and former sources -- in the newspaper business as a significant "node" of Facebook friends. (Facebook actually has an application that graphs this kind of thing for you, and to see the network of relationships in that way is fascinating.)

And some are people that I'm not sure I know, actually, but as Facebook helpfully tells you, I have a friend or two in common with that person, so, well, OK, I'll add them.

So, am I, as Jayne suggests, a "friend collector" who just wants to be popular in this online community? Hey, all I know is that 45 people wished me Happy Birthday on my page last Sept. 5. Even if you don't know all of them, it's nice to have friends.