I was a skeptic about Twitter, that aggregator of life's mini-sodes. I resisted for months, until last week. Since then I have become a convert. The reason? I like how it feels to use it. I mean emotionally. Let me explain.
I resisted Twitter as it seemed just another tool or widget I had to get my head around. I had my first baby in January about the time it seems widgets exploded on the scene. The number of social media tools introduced became an avalanche and I simply lost touch with it all, even before I was in the hospital for 14 days, then dealing with a tiny newborn. I was overwhelmed and irritated by it all, honestly. "Hell, I can't even keep up with my blog, why would I want to add something else to the mix," I thought. It was friend Guillaume du Gardier who finally broke down and tried it that convinced me to do the same. I am glad I did.
A quick aside. Something has been bothering me as I catch up on blogosphere (socmediasphere?) happenings and reportings on what is happening and so forth. It seems like folks (esp. the pundits and anti-pundits) are missing an important point. Maybe THE important point about why all this communicating, sharing, networking, blogging, tagging, tweeting, etc. is so significant. It it that it is LIFE that we are seeing shared here. It is our LIVING as we live it that we share. And it taps into emotion as real as any physical life activity (and as we type, record etc. it IS a physical life activity, of course, but you know what I mean).
All of us, as we navigate and create online are constructing our digital identities. But don't think that these are somehow separate from our physical identities - nothing so neat and clean. We are simply extending ourselves, growing larger...becoming-digital to put it in a Deleuzian context. We are transforming ourselves as humans, transforming others, transforming the world. Big stuff this.
So don't tell me that the sharing of trivia online is trivial. We are sharing little bits of ourselves, of our emotions, particularly. That sharing should be treated with respect (I am not saying respect what people say, merely respect THAT they are saying it. But let's not get too philosophical here.) Online social sharing taps into that scary, dangerous, exhilerating libidinal economy discussed by Deleuze and Guattari, Lyotard and many others.
Ok, so that wasn't just a brief aside, but back to Twitter...
I said I like Twitter because of how it makes me feel. Happy. Connected. Like I felt when I first started blogging. I feel like I am back in touch with the world. I don't have the time to blog like I used to, but Tweeting is easy. When companies are seeking to create new products and services or promote said products and services online, they really should be thinking about emotion. Will their new stuff help me create a happy life? Yes, big stuff indeed.
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