Thursday, October 02, 2008

TWUT WAS I THINKING?

I am lame.

No news there I'm sure.

But I feel like I got suckered.

I might have even just joined a 140 character cult with secret codes and formulas to learn.

Cuz I started a twitter account 2 days ago.

I still can't believe I did it and am so tempted to just twitter only when I go to the bathroom.

Some people tell you over twitter in 140 characters or less, almost everything. I mean it's 140 letters and spaces of randomness that seems to be a waste of time for me to track. So I'm thinking, "who has time for this?.... least of all me!" I mean do I really need to know that someone is:

  • going home
  • eating lunch
  • mowing their lawn
  • just ate a burger and burped
  • smoking crack. Etc...
I've lived my whole life without these kind of personal updates, so I didn't think anyone needed to know this stuff about me and I was resisting this drain on my time of reading it from anyone else. So I'm gonna dip my feet in the shallow end. If I end up in the deep end, I might have to drop this thing before I drown.

SO WHY AM I DOING THIS?

3 REASONS?

#1. FRIENDS: I was at a youth pastors gathering for the PDYM community this week and was reminded again that I have several friends I have who only use twitter, so if I want to track their world over the web, I have to have an account. I can't do so over the blogosphere because my bloglines keeps dropping twitter feeds. Bummer.

#2. YOUTH MINISTRY: Some also swear by it for sending texts to their students as "general anouncements". I'm wondering if that's worth it so I'm gonna check into if this is something our students would enjoy. If so, I already know who I'm gonna tap to do it. This one student in our ministry is a twitter maniac. Like, he should be sponsored by twitter.

#3. STATUS UPDATES: I was already was increasing the updating my "status" on facebook and twitter is basically one method for a facebook status update tool. So, so far I'm reading 17 twitter feeds all that get sent to my iphone. Which is where I'm reading facebook updates too these days and the only place I actually twitter from.

I'm gonna have to figure out when and where I'm gonna do this. Maybe I'll only twitter one line funny stuff. Maybe. I thought this was a good caution... I'm gonna try and keep in mind as I try this out.

Here's my cautions to myself:
  • use it sparingly
  • read it leisurely
  • hold onto it loosly

5 comments:

Len 6:00 AM  

I got mine a few months ago and I thought it was the dumbest thing ever but reason #1 has been overwhelmingly the best part.

Keeping in touch with friends who I randomly see around the country has greatly increased our interaction with each other.

Anonymous,  3:40 PM  

Sigh. We just let the reins loose on the texting thing with Shane. there is NO WAY (I left out a swear word there) he's getting on twitter too.

brian c. berry 11:13 PM  

Hey shane's mom.

If I'm reading you correctly, your sigh and your withheld explitive indicate that you are not happy about the idea of us making some announcements over twitter.

3 thoughts:

1. Shane can't check twitter with his phone unless he has internet access on it- which I'm guessing from your texting reins- is highly unlikely. Twitter is a "text message" service that requires internet access to check or send. Unlike real "texting", it is not a conversation tool- just more like a one line advertisement or announcement tool. It is used for both personal and business interests by many companies and individuals. So we are checking into it.

2. We use lots of means to communicate the same information: the high school blog, facebook, myspace, and our weekend printed high school program. If we add twitter to the mix, it will just be another tool, not our only tool. you can pick and choose the ones that work for your family. I think we may even drop some of them based on changes in our culture as the year or years progress.

3. Wow... I'm not a big twitter fan- though I am using it to post some one line personal updates and seeing if I enjoy it or if it wears on me, but it seems like you have way bigger hatred for it than I. Maybe we should see a therapist together.

Brian

Anonymous,  12:40 PM  

Brian,
Thanks for the reply. Please don't misunderstand my sigh and stifled swearing - I pretty much roll my eyeballs a lot every day. We just need to get to know each other . . :-)
So it's not personal or even unhappiness at the tools you guys choose. I think it's awesome that you reach kids in many ways.
And I can't really express hatred for something I don't know nuthin' about. We have just recently been a bit frustrated at the time-sink texting has become for both our kids and had to lay down some ground rules, like no texting at the dinner table. In my fantasy-head I am June Cleaver and we have the perfect family. So, did you have a particular therapist in mind?
Kathy

brian c. berry 12:52 PM  

Kathy,

No counselor in mind... :)

And if your kids text at the dinner table, go ahead and sink their cell in the nearest beverage container. You go mom. I agree!

Can I do the same if they text in my weekend message? I wanted to kill a girl last week.... good thing she was a fringe kid I did know or I woulda found her afterwards and flushed the dang thing myself.

Brian

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Husband. Dad. Jesus Follower. Friend. Learner. Athlete. Soccer coach. Reader. Builder. Dreamer. Pastor. Communicator. Knucklehead.

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