Twitter is a special kind of network. Though seemingly not as addictive as Facebook, Twitter rehabilitation can take weeks, I learned.
I joined Twitter around January 9, 2009.
On January 29, I woke up to find my list of followers and followees very much out of proportion to what it was the night before.
It was a bad morning. So, on a whim, I deleted Twitter with three clicks.
An hour later, I decided to find out if perhaps there was a glitch that caused my numbers to shift drastically.
Admittedly, the fiasco almost hurt my feelings.
@Twitter: Honey, I promise I didn't mean it! Take me back!
It turned out that there was a macro-glitch in the micro-blog system - a common occurrence I wasn't aware of.
So I went to undelete and was quickly informed of a mandatory 24-hour wait.
And here I find myself: The link to my Twitter hangs on my favorites bar, and every day I check my deletion/restoration ... pt1
... pt2 status to find that my Twitter account is being held captive in Twitter purgatory - a never-ending 24-hour wait.
I never thought I'd grow so attached, given I only joined Twitter for two reasons:
1) To call dibs on my name, granted use of the networking platform has exploded over the last year.
2) To finally see firsthand what all the fuss was about.
So, allow me to reminisce about my more intriguing Twitter use findings amid my Twitter-Tragedy-of-2009 angst.
Micro-blog it: It's obvious that many Twitterers simply record day-to-day activities or musings to share with friends.
But why not ...
Ultra-micro-blog: Narrate events from a smaller perspective, i.e., in Fight Club fashion: I am Jack's liver
and I've had a rough night.
See: http://twitter.com/Jacksliver.
Fictional communication: Twitter swarms with fake super heroes, villains and Stephen Colberts.
But why not ...
Join the club: Be your own (copyright-infringing) favorite hero and interact with other heroes.
See: http://twitter.com/don_draper and other characters from Mad Men, as well as other Twitter sets.
Follow your school: http://twitter.com/ohiou said it best:
We see a lot of PR & Journalism students on twitter. Soon it will catch on to other areas.
But why not ...
Follow a really small part of your school: Olin College (Boston, Mass.) students set up their laundry room with a Twitter.
It updates washing and drying machines' availability status on the hour.
See: http://twitter.com/laundryroom.
Micro-log: A peer said she likes to reflect through Twitter, using it as a sort of inadvertent mini-diary for those fast-paced weeks.
But why not ...
Micro-fiction: By producing 140 letters per day, even the laziest student can finish a chapter of that book by Ph.D. time.
See: http://twitter.com/goodcaptain.
Make new friends: They don't call it networking for nothing; friends' friends are friends, too.
But why not ...
Stalk new strangers: This is actually redundant when you consider the former, but following gets followers!
And finally, put a smile on your face with: http://twitter.com/fakechucknorris.
Despite it lagging on the updates, nothing, just nothing, beats Tweets like that.
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Opinion
Olga Kharitonova
