To Know Me is to Tweet Me
I am closer to my Twitter friends than any other group of people in my life. It’s strange how quickly this application became my default method of communal interaction. There are people I IM every few days, people I email every few months and then the very few I see or call once a year.
But I read all my Twitters every day.
I thought for a while that Facebook would be my main source for knowledge about friends, coworkers and family. Then Twitter came along to teach me how much quicker and easier it is to read a tweet than to open my Facebook and muck around. Twitter taught me that Facebook is a timesuck and even a source of guilt (ie - when Facebook friends send me “plants” and such, do I HAVE to send something back? And why?) .
Twitter doesn’t ask anything of me. I can read the links people tweet out or ignore them. I can respond or not. Twitter fits right in with my attention span, allowing me to be the social hermit I really am without getting totally out of the loop.
What does this mean to you? If you are one of my friends, chances are good you’re waiting for me to email you back - or worse, to give you a call.
Shame on you. You should all know by now how much I hate talking on the phone. And I will probably return your email or Facebook message one of these days. Honestly! Some day. 
It’s not a rudeness thing. It’s just a me thing. My brain is usually foolishly full, plus I don’t enjoy small talk.
Twitter, with its 140 character limit, gets us right to the meat of the matter. I can cheerfully tweet, like a songbird, all day long. If you tweet me, I will actually read it and probably get right back to you. I can keep up with your daily life and you’ll be an intimate of mine.
Do you love Twitter? Prefer Facebook, MySpace or good old fashioned email? Are you an IMer, or a text fanatic? Maybe you still really love yakking on the phone. My hermit-like mind wants to know.
[PS - My Twitter name is HippyGeek, BTW, and if I know you, I will follow you back. Birds of a feather, and all.]
Filed under All About Me |19 Responses to “To Know Me is to Tweet Me”
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I know exactly what you mean Jill. I have fun on Facebook but all those apps with gifts do get to be too much. I just deleted 300 messages and felt a little guilty.
There are no obligations on Twitter and that’s a big part of why I like it. Our family doesn’t do IM chatting for a variety of reasons but I don’t miss it. Sometimes I don’t even answer the phone but I’ll talk to you on Twitter.
I *LOVE* Twitter!!! I keep refreshing it all through out the day to see what people are up to. Everyone is in one spot on Twitter - very efficient. Yea!! Twitter
I never really could figure out Facebook. I just don’t get it. Yeah, I feel guilty about the presents people send me. I hardly ever send any back. I don’t see the point - fake gifts? huh?
Twitter has replaced office banter for me since I do freelance work from home. I can still keep up with my developer friends. And the great thing is that I keep in touch with friends from India, Nepal, Belgium, Brittan, and all over the US. It has helped get me clients, solve problems, vent, and have lots of fun. I don’t know what I would do without it.
I agree about Twitter. I have deleted sections of my Facebook profile because of the constant junk, but Twitter is better for sharing ideas, faster, and not as cluttered.
Shoot. I’m BlakesDesigns on Twitter, and you can delete my previous comment with the typo.
I don’t understand why you feel guilty about saying you don’t want to do the Facebook apps. If you can say it here, you can say it to the person sending it to you. Just say, “I’m sorry, but I don’t have the time to participate.” Easy peasy. I’ve already stopped sending you anything there. LOL
Social media is only as time consuming as you want it to be. I enjoy Twitter, but I also enjoy playing on Facebook and MySpace and all the other online SM stuff.
I only feel guilty that I don’t have more time right now to respond to everybody but those that know me know why and if they get rude about it, I just delete them. But I’ve made some invaluable contacts and had some really cool opportunities come up from all the SM stuff I do, so I happily participate whenever I can.
Hi Michelle! Actually i did tell it to you personally, lol. But now my family members are sending me things and now I have to tell them the same thing. Also, I am trying to be all with the humor.
Hi Blake! I totally agree about the clutter on Facebook. I have actually stopped checking my RSS feed too, b/c of the accumulated junk that I never actually get around to reading.
I am in the mode of trying to protect myself against information overload. It’s a hard thing to manage these days!
Sandra and Jeanne, I am so with you. I wish everyone i knew was on twitter so i can actually keep up with folks for once in my life. I am actually sending this post to friends and family members so they get the “hint”….
PolyGeek, that is so cool that you are sending Tweets around the world. You have a lot of followers so for you this might well become your default networking tool.
What do people in your circles say is their favorite social networking tool? (Am curious)
Oh, BTW Blake, am now following you on Twitter.
I know I am following the rest of you already.
I created a poll: If you could only use one of your social networks which would it be?
http://polygeek.com/519_polls_poll-if-you-could-only-use-one-of-your-social-networks-which-would-it-be
Re polyGeek - that is very interesting: twitter gets only the 4th most votes! And Facebook cuts a huge voting block across all the other categories.
I do like Linked In, but it’s hardly very social. Hmmmm. It’s more like a resume.
I am getting to love twitter too. And I wholeheartedly agree - what is WITH all the flower ands gardens on Facebook???
Hi Deanna! I ignore the Facebook plants and stuff - it’s not why i am there. I would much rather someone Tweet me a “I am packing for a trip” than poke me, but that’s me.
One way gives me at least something to hang my hat on - I get to connect with a friend and see what they are up to. So actually it all comes back to Twitter again.
BUT, that said, I do have friends who love sending the FaceBook gifties. And they are cute, and some help charity causes. Those friends find it relaxing to pick and choose gifts that they think someone would enjoy - like my friend who sends me virtual Lush soaps, for example.
I have a long list of flowers and karma to return to people - literally hundreds. My way of dealing with this overload is to not do anything about it. But the intent that people made to send me something nice is still sweet and all.
Hi … enjoying the blog … thank you.
Never got myspace … liked Facebook for a while … would be perfect if I could add my offline friends as a way of keeping track of people and communicating… Get that out of my work inbox … but thats not to be. Love twitter, but don’t have many people I regularly communicate with. But getting there.
See you on Twitter
Hi Stephen! Thanks for the kind words. Yeah I am trying to get my mom and sister, etc, all on Twitter, but so far have onyl been able to get them on Facebook. Which is good enough, really.
I am not sure how much I should really mix network Tweets with social tweets, not that i think about it. What do other people think?
PS - Stephen, I like your blog!