Experiment: Two months on Twitter
In early September/late August I decided that it was time to learn Twitter. My main reason is that I am the chair of an academic department that teaches courses in social media, so I believed I needed to be more informed.
So I revitalized my account, starting getting followers and following everyone and his brother and sister who looked remotely interesting, and started tweeting. I tried to get out 10 a day at the beginning (retweets counted) but I couldn't keep that up. I especially couldn't after the Las Vegas shootings; I was too upset to go to social media, and I've been too busy. I also am just not clever enough to tweet all that much.
So in two months (let's say 60 days, a round number) I tweeted 317 times which is an average of 5.3 a day, thereabouts. Not too bad. I have accrued 631 followers and follow 1583, which is a 40% percentage or 2.51:1.
So, what do I take away from this? (notice I am writing like tweets--fragments, fragmented phrases--to mock Twitter.)
1. Twitter is addictive. If you let it be. If you let yourself care about how many followers you want or have. At first I said, "I'll get 100 followers, to see if I can." Then it was 200, etc. Now I want 1,000. That will not be enough eventually.
2. It is a cheap and deceptive way to convince yourself you are famous and matter. Even if you don't.
3. The 140 character limitation is an art form. I kind of like it. Of course, some people cheat and just do serial tweets.
4. I resisted for 6 weeks before following real Donald Trump. Haven't read any of them yet, because ....
5. I rarely look at my feed, only when I am bored waiting in line or something. Who has time for that? I don't really read my Facebook feed either. I check the notifications. Is that narcissistic?
6. Which brings me to the point: Isn't this Twitter stuff a massive exercise in narcissism? Am I a better person for being on Twitter? Am I a worse person? (maybe) Am I a worse Christian? (can we really be worse Christians, since it's not exactly a competition?).
7. I haven't sold one book due to Twitter. I don't know if anyone even has come to this blog. Sigh.
So I revitalized my account, starting getting followers and following everyone and his brother and sister who looked remotely interesting, and started tweeting. I tried to get out 10 a day at the beginning (retweets counted) but I couldn't keep that up. I especially couldn't after the Las Vegas shootings; I was too upset to go to social media, and I've been too busy. I also am just not clever enough to tweet all that much.
So in two months (let's say 60 days, a round number) I tweeted 317 times which is an average of 5.3 a day, thereabouts. Not too bad. I have accrued 631 followers and follow 1583, which is a 40% percentage or 2.51:1.
So, what do I take away from this? (notice I am writing like tweets--fragments, fragmented phrases--to mock Twitter.)
1. Twitter is addictive. If you let it be. If you let yourself care about how many followers you want or have. At first I said, "I'll get 100 followers, to see if I can." Then it was 200, etc. Now I want 1,000. That will not be enough eventually.
2. It is a cheap and deceptive way to convince yourself you are famous and matter. Even if you don't.
3. The 140 character limitation is an art form. I kind of like it. Of course, some people cheat and just do serial tweets.
4. I resisted for 6 weeks before following real Donald Trump. Haven't read any of them yet, because ....
5. I rarely look at my feed, only when I am bored waiting in line or something. Who has time for that? I don't really read my Facebook feed either. I check the notifications. Is that narcissistic?
6. Which brings me to the point: Isn't this Twitter stuff a massive exercise in narcissism? Am I a better person for being on Twitter? Am I a worse person? (maybe) Am I a worse Christian? (can we really be worse Christians, since it's not exactly a competition?).
7. I haven't sold one book due to Twitter. I don't know if anyone even has come to this blog. Sigh.
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