• by James , September 17, 2010

So…I broke down and got a Twitter account a few weeks ago. I’m @JoBxr on there, if you care to follow my once-a-week (at best) updates. Forgive me if I sound old, but I don’t see the point in Twitter. It’s Facebook…minus anything interesting.

Maybe it’s just me, but isn’t it vain to publish everything you’re doing under the assumption that people want to read it? Or that they even care? (Ironic that I’m submitting this stance in a blog post, right? Please keep reading…)

Think about it: Why do you follow people? I’d honestly like to know. Has Twitter replaced books for you? Tabloids? The evening news? What did we do before we were in everyone’s business? I think I used to have hobbies. Like…real hobbies. You know, running, writing, talking with friends. And our gossip wasn’t always about what we saw in someone’s status updates.

I didn’t used to know what my friends did when I wasn’t around them. When my acquaintances had rough days, I wouldn’t know about it unless I saw them or we communicated by phone. Do you have a friend who’s always posting negative status updates? Even if that person truly does have a string of bad days, doesn’t reading about it get old? Perhaps their lives would begin to look up if they put as much effort into making human contact as they do to post on Twitter/Facebook.

I’m guessing that some favor Twitter over Facebook for its simplistic design; no photo albums, no Farmville games, etc. But if you ask me, status updates without beefy profile content (and pictures!) aren’t enough to lure me from Facebook to Twitter. I was a college freshman in 2004 when Facebook was brand new, and still exclusive to college students (and not all colleges, at that). I remember when status updates were new and people didn’t really get them. It was a weird novelty that we should tell people what we were doing. Even then, I thought, “who cares that I’m watching Napoleon Dynamite with a room full of friends?” Do you remember when your name used to have “is” after it? Example: “Joe Shmo is…” and some people would ignore the “is” and follow it up with something like, “OMG it’s finally the weekend!” My friends and I haaaaaated that. It didn’t make sense! I’m sounding old again, aren’t I? =/ I’m glad the “is” finally disappeared.

Well, while I’m on the old kick, I might as well teach you a thing or two. I taught COMM210 last year as a GA. One of the most important lessons we teach in that course is to know your audience. I find the same to be true with social media. If I can give you one piece of advice for your social networking, it’s this….(lean in close)….Keep your personal life out of it. That’s right. Don’t tell us about your terrible day. If you have nothing positive to post, don’t post anything! Call your friend if you’re having a bad day; don’t broadcast it for potential employers to see. For me, at least, Facebook and Twitter are ways to market myself to prospective employers and to stay connected with family and friends. I even encourage you to befriend your supervisors and professors—it’ll help you monitor what you post. If a picture is too indecent for your professor to see, it shouldn’t be posted at all. Period (steps off soap box).

So Twitter didn’t work like my iPad purchase; getting the Twitter account didn’t make me find new ways to incorporate Twitter into my life. Am I doing it wrong? Suggestions? Will Biz Stone’s visit to BSU blow me out of the water and convince me to drop all associate with Facebook for Twitter?