Last week, I was watching Return To Cranford, a British TV costume drama about the relationships of a group of people in a small 19th Century country village, and the impact of social change represented by the advent of the railway. (Don’t worry. I’m going somewhere with this – stick with me.)
The squire, resistant to the change to the status quo represented by the railways, was trying to convince another major character of the folly of championing the railway. It was, he said, just a passing ‘mania’.
Ulp! I think I said it myself once, talking about social media like Facebook and Twitter. Gradually, over the last couple of years, first Facebook and then Twitter have woven themselves into the fabric of my everyday life, in ways which continue to surprise, amuse, occasionally frustrate and often delight me.
These days, I’m guessing that you, like me, are often faced with explaining what it is you ‘do’, in your online life. For instance, offline friends ask, what’s the point to Twitter? Why would you want to spend your day blurting out snippets of your life in 140 characters to complete strangers around the world?
Why indeed?
Shall I tell you what my experience of Twitter has been like over the last 6 months, and what it has brought me?
I ventured into Twitter at the beginning of the year in a purely experimental sense. It seemed somehow trivial, lightweight compared to Facebook. I made the choice to keep Facebook as a tool to connect with family and close friends, and wanted to see how useful Twitter would be in my planned freelance writing career. Since then, I’ve put the freelancing on the backburner, but Twitter has become, dare I say it, almost indispensable in my every day life. A couple of months ago, I went on a week’s holiday and was Twitter-free for the trip – I can do without it…but why would I want to?
Twitter has brought me:
Friends - Some of the people I met through Twitter I’ve already met in ‘real life’ (that term is getting tired – online life can be very ‘real’, too), some I’m sure I will very soon (and I’m so looking forward to it!), and some I may never meet but value enormously anyway.
Friends, as the fridge magnet tells us, are the family we choose for ourselves. In the winnowing process that occurs on Twitter, as I followed people with similar interests, something rather magical happened which is much more difficult to achieve offline: I found not one, but many people with whom I share similar interests, passions, life stages, sense of humour. I’ve come to know people whom I would be happy to include in my family, for the rest of my life, and I didn’t have to leave home to do it. I’m a stay-at-home mum, studying uni externally, living in a small rural village – that shit is gold!
Mentors - I’m on a journey, as are we all, and finding those special people who can shine the light of their particular brilliance and insight into my experience is crucial. We do not learn in a bubble; the wisdom and perception of others is invaluable to me, to highlight areas I can improve upon, and present old ideas in new lights. And prod me – sometimes gently, sometimes not. Twitter has given me several. Some of them may not even realise the function they perform in my life, but I am grateful for them just the same.
Colleagues/partners – I know that the future of my entrepreneurial success lies online, at least to start with. I also recognise that this year for me has been one of learning, and I’ve been happy to follow and read the work of those who I see as just a few steps ahead of me, who conveniently post the links to their latest good thoughts on Twitter. I’ve been especially happy to connect with some of these people on a personal level on Twitter, and elsewhere. We know that, in our growing friendships and mutual admiration, there are seeds for future great work. It’s wonderful stuff – heady, exciting, and envigorating.
World-changing opportunities – I’ve spoken before about Cate Bolt, and the incredible work she is doing. A little while ago, Cate invited me to get a little more involved, and I’ve taken on the role of VP for Project 18, a NFP established to provide education, opportunities and a sustainable quality of life for underprivileged and orphaned children in Bali. Right now, I’m feeling a bit superfluous and useless as I encounter all the (polite, well-meaning) resistance that Cate has been dealing with for ages as she developed this project, but I’m excited by the new ideas we’re kicking around, and I’m still chasing a documentary crew to follow her on her next trip to Bali to visit the orphanage she set up on her last visit. (Very likely in October – any film-makers reading this, feel free to contact me asap. Through Twitter is fine. 
). Cate and I met on Twitter, before connecting offline. We share online friends, the minuatie of daily life, frustrations and triumphs, through Twitter. And try, in our own small ways, to change the world.
Resources – Have I written the post yet, about what a bower-bird I am for information and ideas and resources? No. Well, it’s in the works. You might recognise yourself in it. Beginning to experience the Internet on a regular basis, about a decade ago, I felt the joy of an avid reader walking into the world’s biggest library. That joy hasn’t diminished, though it has occasionally tarnished under the flood of dross. Twitter acts like a friendly librarian, who smiles when I come in and shows me some new gems that she just knows I’m going to love. And she’s rarely wrong. Got to love that.
My time is precious, juggling boyo and study and projects and life in general – even my blog reader is sorely neglected. Twitter has provided a fairly focused view of the things that interest me – enough to thoroughly distract me, if I allow it (oh, those lovely shiny pieces of information), but not to the point of overwhelm. It suits my everyday needs, for now. (Stumbleupon, I will be back…one day.)
Playground - At the end of the day, or at any other part of it when I need to step out of the work I am doing, I can tune into another level of Twitter, and find my playmates. These may be any, and many, of the people I’ve mentioned above. I suppose you could call Twitter our water-cooler. For many of us, working from home or for ourselves means that it is hard to compartmentalize our lives cleanly into work, family and leisure – the lines are blurry. The need to play, to laugh, to step out of the roles we have created for ourselves is just as strong whether we work in or out of the home; Twitter allows us to do that.
I can start my morning chasing breakfast in bed (I wish – got about 6 more years to wait for that, I suspect), and end my day with #chocwars and an imaginary swing dance with my ‘partner’ (1000 miles away) murmuring witty bon mots in my (horizontal) ear.
Silly? Yes. Trivial. Maybe. Necessary? Absolutely. I do have great friends and a social life outside my home, but I spend so much time here in my house. It is wonderfully beneficial for my sanity to be able to step sideways for a moment, wherever I am in my day, and share a laugh and a little perspective with a friend.
So, should you use Twitter the same way?
I wouldn’t dream of telling you what you should do – these are merely my own reflections. We all have our own demands on our time, our own needs, and our own right ways of achieving balance. There have been plenty of words written recently- by those much more respected than I – about whether social media like Twitter is an efficient use of your time, a effective way to promote your business or activities, or an indulgent time-waster full of shallow twerps.
I know that my experience of social media in general, and Twitter in particular, has been full of value for me. I think such tools are here to stay; how they evolve remains to be seen, and whether Twitter will even be the medium of choice in even 12 months time, I wouldn’t dare to say.
- The twitter-bird-in-real-life by Scott Hampson (CC Attribution NC-ND) Buy the T-shirt at www.agent-x.com.au
I do think that we humans, such social creatures, have embraced the ability to shrink the physical boundaries between ourselves, meet others who share our passions and goals, and find new and exciting ways to experience and even change the world together. I no longer believe that social media is just a passing mania, but in fact represents the tip of the iceberg in terms of the new ways we can meet, inspire, communicate, and do business with one another, no matter where on the planet we sit.