Look Mom, I’m Tweeting!!!
Dear Mom,
I’m on Twitter!!! I know, you’re probably asking “what the heck is Twitter?” There’s a really good video on YouTube that will expain it better than I can.
So, as you can see it’s a type of micro-blogging, social networking, media 2.0, type of thingy. The definition is kinda in flux, but basically it’s anything you want it to be. And it works with your non-Blackberry, non-IPhone cell phone too. If you can “text” on your mobile phone then you can Tweet. So it’s highly mobile and portable.
The founder of Twitter, Evan Williams started this thingy to answer the question: “Hey, what are you doing?” but it’s taken on a life of its own. You can do so much with it:
- You can follow famous people on Twitter. No, not their PR people, but actually them. Mom, you can follow Oprah, that’s OPRAH!!! Also, you can follow Martha Stuart, Demi Moore, Ellen Degeneres, Soleil Moon Frye Punky Brewster, and a whole bunch more.
- You can track packages on Twitter so that you can stalk those packages that you send up here. It works with FedEx, UPS and the USPS.
- You can also keep your Google Calendar up to date too with Twittercal. It’s a little complicated, but I can help you set it up.
- You can also get notifications from your ToDo list from RememberTheMilk.com.
- Know the location of people who are using Twitter Tweeting by using Twittervision.
- You can also read books. Yep, read books! There’s a cool service that will read a book to Twitter.
- Also, you can also receive weather forecasts by either following a weather forecaster like Al Roker (@ARoker) or you can use Twitter Forecast.
- There are also a bunch of stuff you can do to promote your business or find a job or drive traffic to your Blog or whatever. The list just keeps growing and growing.
I know it’s a lot to comprehend right now, but I just wanted to make you aware that I’m now on Twitter 
p.s. if you’re looking for some help navigating all those abbreviations and acronyms, there is a comprehensive glossary of Twitter acronym which can be found here.
Love you,
April 24th, 2009 at 11:24 am
1. Why do people care what I am doing every minute of the day? Maybe I have low self-esteem (I don’t think I do), but I do not understand why anyone would want to know that I am at work, or I am eating lunch, or I am looking out my window avoiding work (I have a lovely view).
2. Do I want people to know what I am doing every minute of the day? There was a time (I am old enough to remember it) when if we weren’t at home and someone called, they missed and had to call back another time. Before cell phones, pagers, and even answering machines. Civilization still survived (some might say thrived).
3. Who has time to constantly tweet? If I am spending more time tweeting about what I am doing than actually doing it, how am I going to get it done or enjoy it?
My 3 cents from a grumpy, old man.