Parlor Spider...Step In, Little Fly

Insightful thoughts and/or rants from atop the soapbox from one who wishes to share the "right" opinion with everyone.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

All a' Twitter Over This Minute



IT'S STILL A BIT CROWDED ON THIS BEACH FOR ME!

Just when I'd gotten used to emailing my students to stay in touch and call their attention to things, everybody began to use Instant Messaging (IM) and text messaging instead. At that point, my students seldom returned my emails or even claimed to know that I'd sent them something...looking at their email account showed me why: they never, ever, ever clean out their "in" box. It is invariably filled with messages from months previous. Begrudging the new technology, I got a cell phone so I could send text mesages when I needed their attention. It worked wonderfully, for the most part. They could still, of course, refuse to answer the message, and some did that when they knew I wanted them to do something like, say, work when they didn't want to.
I found that texting worked great for my family and friends as well since it didn't require much time, and my cell phone company charged me very little for outgoing messaging while incoming messages were free. At last, I'd caught up with technology. What I didn't realize was that I needed to keep up with the information superhighway ALL THE TIME!
I pay for a simple phone/text plan, but the rest of the world, it seems, has the fancy schmancy phones with internet, email and all the other technical advances, meaning I'm still behind. I seriously doubt that I need to be able to access real time baseball scores or up-to-the-minute weather alerts (I usually just stick my head outside), and there CANNOT be any family news so important that I can't be simply called. Email can wait, I figure.
Now, though, everyone has jumped on the Twitter bandwagon...it's as if Professor Harold Hill just strolled into town and convinced everyone that we should, no, NEEDED to keep in touch EVERY STINKING MINUTE OF THE DAY! And, by and large, people have bought into the idea like so many musical instruments...politicians are using Twitter to show their constituents how tech savvy they are, though the Rep[ublicans are just now getting off the rotary phone thing, it would seem. Anyway, I figured I owed it to myself and my readers who are stuck like me in the Paleolithic period to find out the skinny on Twitter. It started with Charlie Villanueva.
Villanueva a professional basketball player for the Milwaukee Bucks used his cell phone to send a Twitter message (140 characters or less) to his fans...during halftime of a game against the Boston Celtics this week! Needlees to say, Coach Scott Skiles was less than enthused about such an activity. What about the rest of us?
Twitter provides a free service by which anyone can send "...short, bite-sized updates" about himself or herself at any time of the day...all day and all night. Messages are limited to 140 characters, and are based on the simple question, "What are you doing?" It would appear that many of us actually think other poeople CARE about what we're doing every freaking minute of the day, but judging by its popularity, it must be so.
I generally don't care enough to update people on my activities...I usually don't even fill in that box on Facebook when I go there. After all, in a minute after posting, I'll just be doing something else anyway. As a result, I don't see the point.
As for Twitter...no thanks. I have an actual life to live. I cannot be trapped in the minutiae of others' lives. If you need something from me, text me or call my cell. Otherwise, how important can it really be? I'm MUCH too much worried about my life to be totally immersed in yours.
Of course, that's just the "seal" in me coming out. I'll have a mackerel to go, please.

1 Comments:

At 12:50 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

THANK YOU! I was slow to get a cellphone, still regret joining facebook (especially since I have since become addicted), and can't imagine tweeting on twitter. YUCK!

 

Post a Comment

<< Home