I was gearing up to write a post about how I haven’t figured out the purpose of Twitter, except we were scrambling to go to the Finger Lakes, where I don’t have regular Internet access. I was going to question the usefulness of hearing when someone I don’t know has gotten up or brushed her teeth. I was going to muse about whether I should be one of those authors who offers preachy advice or simply quotes others’ advice (which somehow feels less preachy). I was going to, but in the days I’ve been without Internet Twitter has become part of the Iranian uprising, and I don’t know what to do other than keep pressing the “refresh” button on the Iran discussion. In the few minutes it’s taken me to type these three and a half sentences, there have been 1028 new posts to the Iran conversation on Twitter. Twitter itself has become a subject for CNN coverage. The pictures of soldiers confronting protesters reminds me of South Africa, but this dynamic of people in Tennessee and Iceland commenting and sending words of support instantaneously, and people in Iran sending news updates and commentary, it’s just amazing. I’m not sure where it is all going, and I’m still not sure what kind of tweets I want to offer, but it’s not nearly as boring as I feared a week ago.
Yeah – it can be a big thing. myself, I just use it mostly like facebook or a mini-blog post…
Twitter is whatever we want or need it to be. It's the Shmoo of the internet – just as loveable and just as addictive. 🙂
I joined Twitter a while ago but didn't start using it until the Iran conversation became popular. We have a friend who grew up in Iran and I am concerned about her family and friends from there. So I'm on there a lot more. Also, at the same time, FGC created a hash tag for the gathering #fgc09 as well as blog tags (fgc09…don't know how to do that here).