For him, there’s just no reason to type something you could as easily say.
I want to like Twitter. But for me, the problem is that I could not just as easily speak my tweets. Tweeting is, for me, the ultimate act of self-censorship. To contain myself to 140 characters, I must slice an idea down to its barest grains, and then break it again, until scant fragments remain. By the time I publish a tweet, I have cut out its heart, opting to retain, instead, its vocal cords, which look less pretty. Or I must stretch it, spitting out one cell at a time, garbling through distortion a message that would otherwise be clear.
It’s not that I don’t like reading other people’s tweets. Some people actually can cram a lot into those 140 characters. But not me. I’m verbose. So if you don’t hear much from me on Twitter, don’t think I’m not paying attention. Odds are, I’m just lurking, scrambling to compact some thought before its relevance is lost forever.
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Jessie Powell is the Jester Queen. She likes to tell you about her dog, her kids, her fiction, and her blog, but not necessarily in that order. |
I have yet to feel comfortable in that medium too. I’m assuming I’ll get used it it eventually? I hope so.
As a fanatic on Twitter since its early days, I have to say 1. it’s a very different place today than it was back then; and 2. it is still possible to meet people there and have conversations, but it takes more work. I really do think it has taught my brain to fire differently, because I have to practice economy of words and think in tag lines and sound bytes. My suggestion is to find a few people to engage and focus on them. See what happens from there.
We shall develop proficiency together? Perhaps? I do horribly with live chats, too. People will be bouncing ideas around, and I’ll be like still on the last idea when everybody else has moved on on on.
I think I just replied to you in trying to respond to Annabelle. Eye roll at self. I’m on my netbook, which is roughly as effective as my phone, which is to say not much.
Anyway. I’m usually an early adopter, but for some reason, the Tweeting thing gets me. I could never do Hemingway’s famous “for sale, baby shoes, never worn”. I’d have to have at least three characters and a newspaper editor be one of them.
I think I just responded to Andra instead of you. I’m so inept with the netbook. Hmm.. I see a trend. Jessie does poorly with small things…
Anyway, I was going to say we can build proficiency together, but I’m thinking you may be better off striking out on your own now.
I share your pain, Jessie. When I first got to Twitter I tried to get some attention by writing a “story” for the few people who followed me, and for anybody else who happened by. At only a couple or so “chapters” a day, I soon realized that people rarely go to someone’s page, like I do, to ponder their tweets if they don’t understand what they read in just one. Mind you, I tried to make each “chapter” interesting, maybe poetic, but it doesn’t work if no one cares. (One person saw one “chapter” and retweeted it but she seemed to think it was one poem or something.)
Now I see that Twitter is mostly about getting someone’s attention with a small mostly contained bit of navel gazing. World gazing, sometimes, if the reader is lucky.
My 100 word stories have helped me think smaller, but Twitter seems to be either for quips or news. I actually hate and love it at the same time.
You always seem to be up for a challenge. Think sentence on Twitter more than story. Your first sentence here would work as a tweet. If someone answers, you could maybe get a little convo going. Or smile and ignore it. There’s a lot of that going on on Twitter.
Ugh, I seriously hate word counts especially 140 characters. Characters?! Crazy. I still specialise in the now old fashioned text shorthand but I have a lot to say and I plan on getting it said. 😉
I KNOW. Words I need more of them. 140 characters? No.