Prior to
"The Connected Journey," I had never used Twitter; in fact, I had
never even seen a Twitter page or a Tweet. Being an avid Facebook user, I
assumed everything I wanted to gain from social media could be attained from a
scroll through my newsfeed. I also assumed that Twitter was mostly for
celebrities and teenagers. In truth, being someone who updates my status
on Facebook about twice a week, I thought posting play-by-play updates of my
rather routine daily life to be completely unnecessary and narcissistic. However, my opinion about Twitter and what it
has to offer has recently changed.
My best anecdote
that demonstrates one of Twitter’s greatest perks occurred recently and
involved a tragedy that, as a runner, really shook me. Having created a Twitter account and compiled
a list of other Twitter users/organizations I follow, many of which are related
to running, I used Twitter to get the most recent, up-to-date information about
the Boston Marathon on Monday, April 15th. With a colleague and two of my favorite professional
female athletes running, I wanted to be able to follow race updates throughout the
day. By a brief scroll through my
Twitter feed, I was able to read a variety of perspectives on the unfolding
events of race day and feel the buzz of the country’s most prestigious
race. NPR, Runner’s World, and Kara Goucher’s Tweets kept me connected. The school day ended, and around three o’clock,
I got in my car to head home, noticing text messages from my mom and my best
friend: “Did you hear there was a bombing at the Boston marathon?” I
immediately turned my car radio to NPR and opened the Twitter app on my
phone. I was surprised to realize that
Twitter was providing a more up-to-date and varied picture of the tragedy that
was transpiring. When I arrived home,
although I was glued to CNN for some time, I continuously refreshed my Twitter
feed and found it to offer as much information as one of the country’s biggest
television news networks. This occurrence
radically altered my views about the purpose and power of Twitter.
Twitter has been
useful for a variety of other purposes as well: discovering a new recipe or
workout, reading interesting articles or interviews, keeping up with current
events, seeing what friends are doing, or even getting a good laugh. Although
most of the people or organizations I followed at first were related to my
personal interests, I have discovered some great educational sources to follow,
such as Edutopia or National Council of Teachers of English. The list feature is my favorite tool on
Twitter so far because I don’t care for how much information appears in my
Twitter feed and how much of it is Retweets that don’t interest me. For example, the day of the Boston Marathon
tragedy (and the days that followed), I only viewed my “Running” list or my “News”
list to get the most pertinent information without all the needless “noise.” Because I have a variety of interests, some that
intersect and some that do not, the list feature allows me to organize the
massive amounts of communication/information my Twitter feed offers without
feeling overwhelmed or disinterested. I’m
not ready to create a Twitter account for the courses I teach and tweet the
daily homework assignments yet, but maybe after Twitter and I have been
together for a longer period of time and after we get to know each other
better, I’ll consider it!
