On Twittering...
Picture this scene:
The year is sometime in the 1800s, before that new-fangled invention, the telephone came along. A dusty street, such as one that John Wayne or Wyatt Earp might saunter down, stretches out for miles in the blistering sun.
On either side of this road there are huts, some made of logs, some slightly ritzier with milled boards for walls. Every shack has a rickety veranda or open porch on the front, and on every veranda, there are one or two people, sometimes three, perhaps a whole family. Some smoke pipes, several chew on long pieces of straw, a few drink grog out of metal mugs. Some sit in shaky rocking chairs, some hunker down on the veranda steps, and many stand, hands on hips.
Now imagine all of these people, at the same time, yelling at each other – not angry yelling – just trying to be heard.
Some shout out advice. Some tell jokes. Some repeat things that other people already said. If they decide to stop yelling, another person quickly takes their place. It never, ever ends. There’s never, ever any peace.
Oh, and all this yelling happens in 140 characters or less.
When I first heard about twitter this is how I imagined it – as millions of people shouting out millions of things all at the same time, falling, for the most part, on deaf ears, or at least on ears already occupied with their own yelling.
Why would anybody be interested in this, I initially thought?
When it was suggested that I join twitter, I thought, well, okay, but what the heck am I going to tweet about? Why would anybody be interested in anything I have to say? The first time someone I didn’t actually know followed me, I was baffled. Why would someone I don’t even know choose to follow me? It’s not as if I was tweeting profound thoughts or anything like that.
But then I started following people that I didn’t know personally, and I discovered something: people are interesting.
I’m now able to read cool articles that I would never have discovered on my own. I can read advice about book selling and marketing. I’ve made contacts with reviewers and learned about a lot of really exciting books and blogs from fellow authors. I’ve “met” people with similar interests to myself. I’ve even been inspired by poetic, funny, or philosophical musings.
At times I’m overwhelmed by the sheer volume of everything. It’s amazing to think that there are so many individuals out there and, if we want, we can all be interconnected. I don’t think the human brain actually has the capacity to really understand numbers past a certain point. Scrolling through the daily tweets sometimes seems like trying to keep track of every star in the night sky.
But some great advice I received (on twitter) made me realize that I only have to read and respond to as much as I want. The tweets will keep coming just the way thoughts and life keep on coming. I can only be a part of a small fraction of what’s out there, but I’ve got to say…
I’m glad I’m a part of it after all.
