Twitter

During my recent stay in hospital following the birth of number 3, I had very little to do. Unfortunately for me I also had limited internet access. I took my Blackberry into hospital, but aside from phone calls, email and Twitter, I couldn’t really do anything else on it. So I had to rely on my brain, and a pen and paper (how 90’s). I did a lot of thinking about all sorts of things not least of which was thinking about my relatively recent transformation from technophobe to tech lover.

I knew I was starting to rely on the net a long time ago. I do everything online. But it wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago that it dawned on me that I was really EXCITED about technology. When I bought my hubby a Macbook Air and it sat in it’s box for HOURS while I waited and waited for him to open it and he was totally unfazed by it all. In the end I couldn’t stand it anymore and I had to open the box myself!! He was disappointed that I opened it but I mean c’mon, it was pure torture looking at that beautiful black box (how is it that Apple can make a piece of equipment look so sexy?) just sitting there on the bench!

But I digress. I wanted to share my thoughts on Twitter. It was in hospital that I got on to thinking about what Twitter might actually mean to different people. For me, it’s an easy one to explain. It’s an online mini journal. Somewhere I can place a thought. If someone else reads that thought and is interested by it then I am happy. If no one reads it at all I am still happy as I have recorded whatever it was I was thinking at that moment, and I can access it another time should I wish to. It was also important to me whilst I was in hospital as there were nights I was up with the newbie and bored silly, so to read what people were tweeting in the middle of the night was more often than not entertainingly funny! I also love the debates that often occur on Twitter. The whole 140 characters make for very interesting and succinct conversations. Unfortunately for me, my brain has moved from being placenta brain to baby-breast feeding brain, so I am not at all confident enough to join these debates just yet (I will though! Particularly want to get in on the religious debates that occur!)!!

So back to what I observed on Twitter. I am sure this is not news to anyone reading this, I just wanted to record my own thoughts on Twitter. If it is news to you, great!

Obviously Twitter is a social network. Easy. Someone tweeted one day that it was easier to have online friends than real life friends. I agree to a certain point, though nothing beats actual human interaction (I’m old school like that). Having said that though, I have made some pretty good friends online, although I have never actually met them.

I also get news from Twitter. I love it when people tweet links to interesting and often obscure items of news. I love it when news breaks on Twitter. I love it when people post the funny stuff. I loved it when I first saw Flight of the Conchords doing ‘Business Time’ ... that is one link I view over and over and over.

A lot of people use Twitter for work purposes, tweeting links to their sites and blogs. Self promotion is rife on Twitter, as it is in many places on the net, and why not? So long as you don’t mind potentially millions of people stalking you from all over the world!!

Since I joined Twitter, I have honestly laughed every day at one Tweet or another. One person that I follow in particular makes me laugh constantly (he was the provider of the ‘Business Time’ link) and Twitter would be a dull place without him.


I also love it when (and this happened whilst I was in hospital) late at night there will be someone somewhere who may have had a few too many to drink and feels the compulsion to tweet whilst out and about. This makes for hilarious reading (and no doubt a serious case of the d’ohs the next day for said Tweeter!)!!

A lot of people that I follow are extremely tech savvy whilst I am not. This is one of the positives of Twitter in my opinion. For me, it has given me an insight to the tech world, with links to tech blogs and discussions about various new pieces of technology. What surprises me though is the tech savvy people that follow me while I tweet about new babies, thigh high boots and my recent purchases of lingerie or clothes with the odd car or new laptop thrown in! It is this diversity that makes Twitter so appealing to me.

So there you have it. This is why I am one of the many people addicted to Twitter and tweeting various bits of often useless information every day. If you didn’t come to view this page via my tweet about this blog, then create a Twitter account and check out what all the fuss is about. Maybe it’s not for you, but then again, that’s exactly what I first thought.