How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Tweet

I come to new ideas on the www late, getting on board kicking and screaming most times. I didn’t start to use a computer until 2004, walking to the local library to use the e-mail. Until that time, I had never even Googled. So you will excuse me the delay in joining the social network platforms. I have arrived late to the party but no less enthusiastic.

I had looked in on My Space because it seemed to be the place where bands went to reach out to fans. Which it does, if you’re interested in the kind of music that is controlled by the labels or you like bands that formerly filled the pages of Tiger Beat. In addition, pictures of young kids being drunk and disorderly have never really interested me, especially when I was drunk and disorderly. You Tube has become a regular stop, but more as an internet TV channel. I have never had the urge or the talent to produce a mash up or home video for some one else’s entertainment. I discovered Plaxo, well I don’t really know how, but used it as a business to business site. Indeed, I became surprised how many of my associates that I met under working conditions were members of Plaxo.

Then, about a month ago, I fell under the double whammy of Twitter and Facebook. These two web sites have filled up my free moments over the last ten days. Hopelessly addicted, I can only hope that these distractions, like the other dalliances in my life, will soon be put on the back shelf.

Until then, these sites have been exactly what they have been promoted to be. Facebook is the digital equivalent to being on the streets of the old neighborhood. I have been able to contact friends and former workmates that I haven’t talked to in decades. The exponential ability of Facebook to put you in touch with one friend and then to find others is pretty amazing. With the addition of photo albums and the conversations between those friends it’s like being back on the stoop on a warm summer night, when the neighborhood promenades in front of you. You can join in, instigate, or just listen to these conversations while checking out the girlfriends and wives, catch up on gossip, stories from work and brag about the kids. Facebook is a virtual neighborhood, except unlike the one at home, it is only inhabited by friends you like.

Twitter, on the other hand, is social in the fact that you communicate with people. The difference it has with Facebook is that your audience, for the most part is, anonymous. Most are people you don’t know, and it is similar to small phone calls, like, “What are you doing?” The Laundry.” “ Oh!” I know a guy (really) who uses Facebook and Twitter in tandem. He posts comments on his pages, telling us the most mundane things about his day, details that we wouldn’t relate to others. They would be called the same old stuff or nothing special. But by telling those details to one and all, they becomes an intimate portrayal of the man’s life. A life filled with things to do. It is, perhaps unintentionally, a peek into modern Swedish life.

Twitter is really a mini blog that keeps the writers thoughts to under a 140 letters. Quick entries that allow writers and readers to relate to each other in the “sound bite” style that is the way we now gather our information. By collecting these mini thoughts we are allowed to flesh out our characters over time. The same way we have done in our lives with real people. Life is now a series of Tweets, with the longer and detailed background stories and events that change our lives put on Facebook.

Now will you excuse me? A friend wants to connect with me.

Somewhere.