The Why of Twitter

In my recent Facebook post, I talked about how blogging and Twitter together serve all my "social media" needs. I use this blog to share my thoughts and anecdotes and questions and ideas, to offer links, to post photos, and so on. The whole purpose is to connect with people out there—otherwise I'd just keep the whole thing to myself, wouldn't I? Via comments and email, I've "met" so many interesting people from all over the world—people I would never have found otherwise. I consider many of these people to be my friends now and have even met a few. It's not that weird when you think about it. I bet many of you work with people whom you've never met, don't you? When I used to work in-house, in the pre-email days, I would talk on the phone to my authors many times a week, sometimes for hours at a time, but I met only a few of them, ever. And as a freelancer, I've met only one or two of my clients, but we email or speak on the phone regularly and have established something that is surely a "relationship." Why not with friends?

I use Twitter to fill in the big, gaping social gap in my day-to-day life, which consists nearly exclusively of (1) editorial work done alone at home and (2) the mom thing. I love both of those jobs, and I'm good at them. But the thing I miss from my days on the cubicle farm are the people. There was always someone to chat with about movies for 5 minutes on the way to the mailroom or to overhear talking about the Red Sox while I boiled water for my tea. We bounced work-related (and not-so-work-related) ideas off of each other all the time. Which photo do you like for this chapter opener? Do you have a good recipe for meatballs? This author is driving me up the wall! I found a great new Indian restaurant! Does this sentence make sense to you? Help me choose between these fabric swatches for my new couch! I don't get any of that anymore. That is, I didn't until Twitter came along.

With Twitter, I can have those brief interactions anytime I want—which includes not at all, if I'm having a busy day. It is the electronic version of the old water cooler. There are conversations that interest me about Macs and iPhones, movies and books, food and wine. There are conversations that I barely glance at as they stream by, about football and "American Idol" and Windows and dogs. It's just like in an office. If you're making copies, and a few coworkers are chatting about something, you can join in or not, depending on how interested or busy you are. And you don't have to feel as though you must somehow catch up on all the conversations that you miss while you're working or commuting or having lunch or whatever. Just like in real life.

As many commenters pointed out after that Facebook post, you don't meet new people at Facebook—it's for people you already know (or used to know). Twitter is very different. It's all about meeting people. You can search for and "follow" (the Twitter version of "friending") people who live near you, who work in the same field as you, or who have the same hobbies as you. Most often, though, I tend to follow people who my friends follow. If someone I like and respect is having an interesting conversation with another person, I'll give that person a try. Following on Twitter is not as big a deal as friending is on Facebook. You can follow or unfollow someone without much fanfare. I'm following hundreds of people, but that in no way means I actually have conversations with all those people daily, or even weekly. Again, just like in real life.

You'd be surprised at how well you can get to know someone by reading these 140-character snippets from them throughout the day. Good, efficient writing is most definitely a plus here, and humor is particularly well-served by brevity. I've met editors and professors, bakers and linguists, homeschoolers and photographers, a nutritionist and a rabbi and bartender and a cab driver. It's like an international cocktail party, only you can tune out anyone you choose—and you don't have to wear heels.

Coming tomorrow: "The How of Twitter," in which I will talk about some of the current offerings in Twitter applications and why they all leave me wanting more.

Comments

[zosa]

thanks to @hieronymus on twitter I found this posting...a very good description of why one would twitter. I am constantly finding myself, as 40+ guy, defending my usage of the latest social networking tools that are typically associated with the under 16 crowd. I appreciate your posting this so I can point those naysayers to some words that make sense.

[pam]

I work in an office but because everyone's on their own projects, I usually go all day without conversing with anyone. Twitter is my outlet for that reason.

Also, Karen,(continued from an earlier Twitter round) I still think you owe red potatoes in soup an apology.

[Ellen Kimball]

Hi Karen,

You are a fine writer and I'm glad I found you on Twitter, which led me to your blog.

I have a 40-year-old daughter with two elementary school children here in the same Oregon city where we live. She is trying to do a home-based business while handling my grandkids. Boy, is she ever busy! Her business involves selling, so she has home meetings and outside parties, along with a ton of friends. However, I completely understand your situation with small children at home. All I can say is "This, too, will pass." My husband and I are into the "empty nest" phase of life, which has its pros and cons.

The whole Twitter phenomenon reminds me of chat rooms which became popular in the early 1990s through Usenet. Eventually, I got off of that because of the nature of the arguing. Also, some people began pursuing me. Some guessed that my ramblings were supposed to be seductive, but that was how THEY viewed it.

FYI, I've been married for 36 years to my Brockton-born husband, and will be 70 years old in May 2009. I have a ton of experience in radio, marketing, sales after working since I was 16 years old.

Thanks for reading.

Ellen

[Aaron Pressman]

This is a most excellent distillation about the value of Twitter for we the work-at-home folks.

I somehow missed your earlier post on Facebook and I feel like you are either a. not a person needing a tool like Facebook (the same way you don't need a stethoscope to be a freelance copy editor) or b. not using Facebook quite right to get the most out of it -- if I may be so absurdly bold as to say such thing in a blog comment :).

As I wrote about a few months back, using Facebook as some kind of glorified high school/camp reunion is ok at best but not very important, kind of a waste of time. The real value of Facebook is to keep in better touch with people like close friends you don't see enough, former colleagues from work you miss seeing and relatives spread across the globe.

To get that unique and valuable benefit, though, you have to use Facebook that way. Don't friend all kinds of people, just the ones you have a continuing "connection" with. And then you have to participate, posting the occasional photo, link or whatever and commenting on your friends' stuff. Soon there's a virtuous circle going around, feeding off itself. And perhaps most valuable of all, I've found that all the Facebooking enhances subsequent get-togethers in the real world. Some people are calling it the creation of ambient intimacy.

More here: http://gravitationalpull.net/wp/?p=527

[Virtual Vermonter]

I'm still trying to get into Twittering. One of my other hats is satire (long form), and it would be a good way to blow off some short steam and possibly market that section of my "career" more effectively. Like everything else, I think I'm thinking more along the lines of how this can help me market my creativity, and probably missing the point entirely. :-)

[Pushan Banerjee]

Great post about Twitter. Can't help agree with you about Facebook. I have made way mnay more friends on Twitter, than I ever will on Facebook.

[steve]

Now THAT makes some sense.

[Di]

Actually I have gotten to know someone on Facebook that I didn't know before. A friend in Boca "fixed me up" with a friend of hers she said reminded her of me. We became fast Facebook friends.

Twitter just hasn't grabbed me yet...I think I set up an account but I don't Twitter. But then again, I'm always a few months behind you on this stuff!

[Laura]

I ended up on Twitter (I think) after reading your friend Mark's blog and finding your recipes there which led me to you and your blog. I since tried Twitter after seeing your many comments about it as well as hearing about it from friends on Facebook. I even got a "hi" from you there. But I was unable to respond! Could not figure it out. I also tried to subscribe to your RSS feed but have yet to see anything "happen" from that. I have NO IDEA what I'm doing. I'm all about e-mailing and have learned to IM. I have been in the chat rooms as one commenter mentioned. And I've been really into MySpace and now more recently Facebook, but Twitter? Every interesting thing you said in this post has gone completely over my head. I'm one of those people who needs to see things as they are explained, especially when it comes to something like Twitter where I'm already totally confused. Also, I tend to be long winded, and I think Twitter makes that somewhat challenging. I still want to learn it, but all those different places to access it? That just confused me further. I feel really old now :(