May 9, 2011
Twitter. Tweet. Twerps.
Today I got up bright and early for the first ever Mason Tweeter’s Luncheon. It was hosted by George Mason University Dean of Admissions Andrew Flagel (an active tweeter), and gave some active GMU tweeps the chance to meet up.
At first I was a bit apprehensive–an entire lunch to discuss…Twitter? How does one keep up a conversation about Twitter for that long? But by the time the lunch ended an hour and a half later, I got it. Twitter, while a topic of conversation in and of itself, isn’t the main picture–it’s the conversation it helps facilitate.
We discussed the affect that Twitter had with the reporting of Osama bin Laden’s death; how social media broke the news, and how damn exhilarating it was to literally watch news unfold in a series of 140-character bundles.
We talked about how the University was utilizing Twitter as a tool to dispense information and the GMU hashtag.
The GMU hashtag is one I often follow because of my job at Connect2Mason. It yields a plethora of information from what’s going on tonight, to administrative successes and failures, to scandals. It’s also good for an occasional laugh.
I was one in a group of six, and while it was a small turnout, it was great to see the people that I had been following as more than just avatars. Some I had interviewed before or knew personally, but for the majority of those there I had only known them by their tiny Twitter photo. Some say social media is in reality not social, and in fact making us less sociable, but I can say with confidence that meeting these people face-to-face was anything but unsociable. We told jokes, enjoyed each others company and had a real discussion. It was a lovely time.
It makes me love Twitter all the more.
But would this have been possible if we communicated through another social media tool, say Facebook? I’m not sure. On Facebook, people work much harder at having a certain persona. You wouldn’t post certain things on Facebook that you would post on Twitter. Twitter is much less restrictive in that you can pretty much say whatever you want. Certainly you may not have too many followers if you tweet 50 times an hour, or consistently talk about how drunk you are, that you just took out the garbage, or that you have a penchant for studying bug exoskeletons (although for that, there may be an entire gang of tweeters who would find you interesting).
Twitter is kind of like looking into someone’s mind. You are seeing all these unrestricted thoughts, and while we don’t say everything we always want to say, you get a good idea about someone.
For example, after taking a peek at my last 10 tweets (at the time of writing this) you can tell that I really like Starbucks, am a germaphobe, live in a way too hot house somewhere in Prince William County, not a fan of Newt Gingrich and that I love Twitter. Now, maybe that doesn’t say too much but about me, but a personality is definitely shaping and those are just 10 out of my 4,624 tweets.
It is in his way that Twitter is so darn awesome. You can really know someone just by their Twitter, and that relationship doesn’t have to end when you shut off your computer/smart phone.
So what’s my bottom line? Get a Twitter, it’s pretty darn cool.
Filed by yasmintadjdeh at May 9th, 2011 under Uncategorized
No comments on this post yet