{"id":41,"date":"2008-06-06T01:58:15","date_gmt":"2008-06-06T05:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jamesgang.com\/ideas\/?p=41"},"modified":"2008-06-06T01:58:15","modified_gmt":"2008-06-06T05:58:15","slug":"what-on-earth-is-everyone-twittering-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jamesgang.com\/ideas\/what-on-earth-is-everyone-twittering-about\/","title":{"rendered":"What on earth is everyone twittering about?"},"content":{"rendered":"

About a month ago, I received an email from a friend inviting me to join Twitter.<\/strong> I’d heard about Twitter for over a year but had not given it any thought. It seemed like mindless entertainment for people who didn’t have anything better to do. Why would the world want to know the mundane facts of people’s lives? Why would you bother to tell others what you are doing — why not just enjoy the moment and be ‘present’? I didn’t get it… But when the invite came in, I decided to sign up… I was curious…<\/p>\n

\"twitter<\/a> is a talented writer on the environment… What was she twittering about? <\/p>\n

Maybe I was missing something? It was at the very least a nice show of friendship.<\/h2>\n

Well, LaMarguerite was twittering about all sorts of things, in 140 characters or less.<\/p>\n

Mundane stuff:<\/strong> Making sandwiches for her kids and their friends.
\nEnvironmental ideas:<\/strong> Getting hooked on KrisCan’s green sex and humor<\/a>.<\/em>
\nTwitter etiquette: <\/strong>“I don’t like when people only use twitter to pump up their biz; I like when I learn random stuff from people just sharing, naturally.<\/span>” <\/em>
\nAnd global:<\/strong> “<\/em>Wondering how many of you my twitter friends, believe in world peace? if you do, copy this tweet in your next tweet.”<\/em> A few days later another tweet: “<\/em><\/span>Thanking all of you my twitter friends who participated in the peace meme. The experiment was a success, and will be used for a Stanford class.”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Could I be a Twitter user? <\/h2>\n

I’ve always kept a journal and I am a blogger. \"twitter<\/a> <\/p>\n

My tweets are a mishmash of ideas, but somehow I’m managing to keep them all short. Is less more or more less?<\/p>\n

Environmental:<\/strong> “Just read Michael Pollan’s ‘Why Bother’ <\/a>in NY Times — thinking about growing veggies in our backyard… read Eccentric Glamour<\/a> today – fun.”<\/em>
\nMundane<\/strong>: Weeding the garden — must root out the bad guys before they spread and choke out everything. But they keep popping up. Perseverance needed.”<\/em>
\nArtistic:<\/strong> “Heard Malcolm Gladwell speak May 13. See my new visual essay:<\/em> The Real Poop on Social Change.<\/a>”
\nFun Brain Exercises:<\/strong> I challenge myself to invent a new word<\/a> (most days).
\nSocial and political: <\/strong> “Watching Marguerite get personal with Obama on YouTube<\/a>. Congrats!!”<\/em>
\nMore environmental news:<\/strong> “Death of GM truck factory in Oshawa as gas prices destroy behemoth vehicles. Hummer thankfully endangered species. Glad we sold our SUV<\/a> in 07.”<\/em>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Friends I knew started popping up on Twitter and connecting with me. <\/h2>\n

\"twitter<\/a> added his thoughts on the GM fiasco:
\n“GM pulls head out of sand ten years too late, kills off Hummers (maybe), realize small cars are where it’s at, finally.”<\/em> Of course Martin is up on environmental issues and social marketing<\/a> so I shouldn’t have been too surprised he tracked me down.<\/p>\n

Very quickly I started exploring other people’s Twitter pages. It’s like following the crumbs in Hansel and Gretel… perhaps that is not a good analogy as then we’d be worrying about witches and gingerbread houses and the like… But whatever — this Twitter maze is like a never-ending story.<\/p>\n

\"twitter<\/a> and \"twitter<\/a> and \"twitter<\/a> are somehow all connected because I see their icons on each other’s pages. You never know who you’re going to bump into on Twitter. I guess that’s part of the fun of it. But if you dig deep enough, you’ll figure out who people are. <\/p>\n

“Hi, I’m Co-founder and Creative Director of Twitter<\/a> and also helped make Xanga<\/a>, Blogger<\/a>, Odeo<\/a>, and Obvious<\/a>. I’ve published two books about social media and have a more professional profile on LinkedIn<\/a>.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Some Twitterers have very cool icons with wonderfully designed pages. (Note to self to spruce my icon up. Surely I can do better?) <\/p>\n

I particularly liked this one from a guy \"twitter<\/a> who spells his name backwards. <\/p>\n

So some people have started following me — and I wondered, “How did they find me? Am I dropping breadcrumbs? Where is the trail?”<\/em> I noticed that a super-prolific Twitterer, was following me. And that he also posted on LaMarguerite’s peace meme. I wondered, “Is he a friend of hers?”<\/em> I sent \"twitter<\/a> a direct message asking him, and commented that I could not possibly keep up with all the twittering he was doing… Only to be a wee bit embarrassed when I dug further. Max is not an individual but a social media and green living company<\/a>. Interesting…<\/p>\n

Some people just have a knack for tweeting.<\/h2>\n

\"twitter<\/a> writes tweets that are funny, personally revealing and intriguing. Of course that is in keeping with her identity as the Boston Globe columnist and author of the Brazen Careerist<\/a>. She also has many opinions<\/a> on why you may want to keep your Twitter identity separate from your Facebook and other social media selves. <\/p>\n

What I find so neat about Twitter is how you can connect with some very interesting people, very easily and quickly. <\/h2>\n

I happened upon the President of Pop Labs, \"twitter<\/a> who tweets… <\/p>\n

“Playing Scrabble with my kids (age 17, 14, 9) . Is it wrong to punch one of them to get their mind off the letters ;)” <\/em> He also comments that he wants to whip his sales guys into shape ’cause there’s a $35k deal on the line. He’s a pretty good writer. I discovered his motivational pep talk: How to Think and Act Like A Loser<\/a>. <\/p>\n

So can we ever know what on earth everyone is twittering about?<\/h2>\n

Yesterday I uncovered an app that answered that question. I tweeted happily: “Fascinating view of twitters around the world real time.”<\/a><\/em> <\/p>\n

\"twitter<\/a><\/p>\n

Well, I’ve only scratched the surface of Twitter, but I like the serendipity and fun of it… It may just be a social media tool that helps change the world by connecting us in ways we never could have imagined.<\/p>\n

See you on Twitter.<\/a><\/p>\n

Franke James<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

If you’re new to Twitter, here’s an informative primer by Koka Sexton<\/a>:
\nEverything you ever need to know about Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n

Twhirl <\/a>is a nifty tool to compress urls. (Twitter is very strict about the 140 characters.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About a month ago, I received an email from a friend inviting me to join Twitter. I’d heard about Twitter for over a year but had not given it any thought. It seemed like mindless entertainment for people who didn’t have anything better to do. Why would the world want to know the mundane facts … <\/p>\n

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