Twitter

Well, I’ve been flirting with Twitter for a month. I like it- it has not become obsessive (yet) so that is good. I am still seeking the practical, life-altering, educational-related benefit to this device. It is wildly thrilling to be following a number of superstar individuals who are involved with learning and technology and education. Like I know exactly the moment Will Richardson has posted a new post and that Steve Dembo had to purchase a new car because his was totaled in an accident. Really, who would know that kind of stuff without Twitter? Not only is it thrilling to know that stuff, but to even receive replies from these superstars can be completely ego inflating! For example, I was playing with the Twitter features trying to figure it all out and I accidentally nudged Steve Dembo. I mean, how embarrassing to NUDGE someone who has no idea who I am! I didn’t even know what a nudge meant until after I had already done it. I was worried he would think I was stalking him or something so I quick shot out a tweet to him and apologized and explained what I was doing. He responded back to me and was completely nice about it! I was worried I would get flagged or banned or something. (Just so you know and you don’t make the same mistake, it apparently alerts that person that you are waiting to hear something from them…Steve didn’t think it worked.)

Here are a few points I am pondering with this application and how it relates to my life.

1. Why are the majority of the tweets from men? And…
2. Who knew they talked so much during the day! ouch
3. How do I incorporate Twitter effectively at work?

Examining my points; to be fair, I mostly follow men. HOWEVER, the three women I do follow hardly ever tweet. If you have not been on Twitter, here is a brief personal synopsis of the differences between the sexes and their responses.

Men: They tweet about everything they are doing. Getting the oil changed in the car, new blog posts, basketball scores, rebooting their routers, pondering how to find a Twitter filter (which, to me, sounded like wanting to use an aggregate on Twitter which, I also believe, is not entirely the purpose of the application, but a cool idea nonetheless. I did not choose to share that particular observation on Twitter, however), and submitting interesting nibblets of information they stumble upon. All this tweeting fills the twittersphere with hordes of fragmented comments throughout the day. There is also a great deal of good-humored banter that ensues which is very entertaining.

Women: They stick their beaks out once in a while to just sort of check in and/or tweet some sort of announcement. I’ve observed a little banter, but it is usually in the form of a direct reply vs. a tweet to all.

What does it all mean? I have no idea- it just makes me think and conjure theories. It is interesting to me. Maybe I 'll share my observations with John Gray and get some answers. I’m planning to continue to explore Twitter. I see an huge benefit in how quickly people receive information and responses in Twitter posts compared to blog posts. Several others I am following have commented on this phenomenon as well. Contemplating my statement #3…I will have to continue thinking on that one. Currently I am never sitting at my desk long enough at work to delve into Twitter and see what is going on out there.

If you are interested in who I follow on my Twitter account my profile name is ktkallen.
And if you have any thoughts, suggestions or comments I would love to hear from you!

I can’t wait to tweet out on Twitter that I have just posted to my blog…