My Day on Twitter

People don't understand Twitter. More specifically, people don't understand why I like Twitter. So, I thought I would spend a little time making my case for this odd little service with no business plan that forces you to articulate a thought in 140 characters (or fewer).

I follow 23 Twitter feeds. Tonight I have 64 people following my 140-character words of wisdom and inspiration. About half of the feeds I follow arrive via text message on my phone, so I'm always up to date. I have my device setting to off for the other half, and I tend to read them all at once later in the day.

The information I get from Twitter is sometimes immediately useful, sometimes quite insightful, regularly bemusing. All of this is mixed with those posts the haters like most to point to, the mundane. But it's the mundane that creates a full portrait of the people we follow on Twitter. Those 140 characters add up to something rich.

So, here are just some of the things I've learned from Twitter in the last 24 hours:

I started the day off with a tweet from @mwesch thatled me to videos he's linked to for his visions of the future class. Very cool to see what AT&T and Apple were anticipating in the early 1990s:





One of the comments on the "What Would You Do?" Apple ad was "end gay people." That got a couple more tweets going and a link to this (which I also posted on my Twitter feed and Facebook page):



A little later Wesch also gave us a shout-out for the final project of one of his students. And they say the Internet is all fluff:



Students are doing brilliant work, and it's out there for all of us to see, not just for the teacher. This is a fundamental shift to higher education (well, education generally), and a very positive one.

Meanwhile, back at my Twitter feeds...

My colleague @Holden is wrapping up one position before he starts another (and let me just say how thrilled I am about that. This was his first tweet of the day:

holden Going through old emails, looking for anything of use to my successor. And it all looks so much like, well, you get thrown in and you swim.

And the folks @Passing_Strange (one of the best theater experiences in my life) tweet great lines from the show a couple of times a day. Life changing? No, but how awesome it is to be reminded of a life-changing experience a couple of times a day.

And then this little exchange had me smiling forever. It's funny, but it's also kind of quirky brilliant.

KeenanBlogger loves that you can ask questions on twitter and SOMEONE out there will answer. hehe i'm just gonna start asking stuff that is so easy

KeenanBlogger to find out on my own but I'm too lazy to do. What's the weather like outside my apt in Chicago, zipcode 60601?
about 9 hours ago from web

KeenanBlogger HA! Thanks @JarviMac, @soulofayoungman, @stewartyu! hmmm now if only I could figure out what color underwear I should wear...
about 9 hours ago from web

KeenanBlogger Blue it is @sashanks323! OMG Twitter is so the new magic 8 ball
about 9 hours ago from web

KeenanBlogger RT @jilltwiss, Twitter followers once told me how to tell if my arm was broken (using a tuning fork, to boot). And that's a HARD question.
about 9 hours ago from web

Twitter is the new magic 8 ball. Andrew Keenan Bolger, you may recall (but probably not) is my current reigning blogger of the year. He pukes creativity and wit, all with a strong social consciousness.

Then there was Hair. My day got off to a pretty nice start when I received a tweet from Hair on Broadway that the revival cast recording will drop on iTunes on May 26. Let the sun shine in!!

And if that weren't enough, later in the day I got a tweet alerting me to Hair Radio. This is a media player that plays songs from the 60s and from every cast recording of Hair. I've heard "Eyes Look Your Last" from the British Company, "What a Piece of Work is Man" from the film, and lots from the original broadway cast.

I learned a few things about people I'm interested in. And a few bizarre things. Really Bizarre!

So, this is my Twitter manifesto. I like it! People who blog about how useless it is, especially when they haven't studied it or even used it, especially when they're academics, just haven't given it a serious look. Sure, we're still waiting for a business model. Sure, there are moments where I think, "I can't believe that cost me 15 cents." But I have had such a rich experience and appreciate all the tweets my buds have sent over the last months.