I tweet – it doesn’t make me a bad person

I tweet, I play with Twitter. I enjoying talking to people, I enjoy the instant news updates, local, national and international. I enjoy the one on one conversations possible via DM (private messaging) I enjoy the interaction provided by the @ (mentions) facility.

People are constantly asking me why I bother wasting my time, because that is what they see Twitter as, a waste of time. Like any social media it CAN be a time-waster, but used in the right way can be an excellent way of keeping up to date instantly with news either locally or internationally or even something as simple as a road closure or traffic accident in your local area.

I love the fact I can pop in and out of Twitter and not miss anything. If someone wants to include me in a conversation they mention you and it pops up in your time line as a mention. It could sit there for 1-2 hours, or even days and you can still follow the conversation. Not everybody has access 24/7 – not everyone wants access 24/7.

As my work involves computers, I have access almost 24/7. But that doesn’t mean that I participate 24/7.

I see Twitter as one big world-wide neighbourhood; people ask for help, people look for support. People share their good news, people share their bad.

The trick to Twitter is not to try and keep up with each and every tweet that people have broadcast, since you were last active. Just wipe everything in past, check your mentions and pop right back into the stream of tweets.

Say good morning, wander off for a coffee, and maybe go to work. Pop in later and see who has what to say. Different times of the day have different nations online. You rotate through the world depending on what time where and who’s doing what.

You don’t have to participate if you don’t want; you could be a voyeur and just watch. Or you can participate to the max and not miss one tweet or call for help. It’s completely up the user, as to how they choose to participate.

Twitter has also come to the forefront in cases of emergencies. From the Australian Bushfires to the Haiti Earthquake to the New Zealand Earthquakes, to the Natural Gas line explosion in San Bruno, California.

Hash tags have been developed, that assist the Twitter user in following topics of interest. At the time of writing this the most popular hash tags were:-
#neverforget in relation to the events of 9/11
#Clijsters in relation to the US Tennis Open
#IMORTAL TRICOLOR is a homosexual Brazilian football team. (<-- I’m not sure I want to know where this one came from.)

Why not jump in and join all the bad people and have some fun, meet some good people, both online and off (which I have done several times)

Do the Twitter thing and become a twerp and release some tweets on the world!