Immersed in the Twitterverse

A few months ago, I signed up for Twitter, utterly convinced that the project would be abandoned in a matter of days. Even my username-- the ever-intimidating BB_Gunz-- was a joke (its origin being my bling-sporting, rap-happy alter ego from Halloween 2008.)

How wrong I was. 7 months and 630 tweets later, I'm turning into somewhat of a Twitter fiend, and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

On the one hand, it's gotten me off of AIM, where I wasted away countless hours in high and school and college glued to my computer (who knows how many books I could've finished with that lost time?). For the most part, tweets have replaced the function of away messages, and even instant messages. IMs are a time-consuming effort, and full-time employment leaves little room for one-on-one online conversations after staring at a screen for the greater part of the day at work.

With AIM falling out of the picture, Twitter keeps me connected with friends and classmates-- people who have been busier than ever with grad work, jobs, and travel ever since the end of undergrad life-- sometimes even moreso than Facebook does (gasp!). But how?

Well, frequent tweets come off as less irritating than frequent Facebook status updates, since the sole purpose of Twitter is to tweet, whereas Facebook arguably serves more purposes, including photo album storage and an event invitation feature. We also usually tend to follow those friends on Twitter that we feel closer to (remember those 10 kids from freshman orientation you still haven't de-friended yet on Facebook? Me neither), and thus care more about what they have to say.

Twitter has also become the first place where I get my news in the morning. As I'm shoving Cheerios down my throat at the kitchen table, I can flip through a convenient mobile Twitter app on my iPod Touch. My favorite news sources-- the NY Times, NPR, the HuffPost-- are all on Twitter (though I still browse the regular Times & NPR homepages from a desktop computer on a daily basis. Twitter can't possibly cover all the good stuff.)

Thus, obtaining information via Twitter is quick and easy. Information is neatly packaged into 140-character units. Updates are short, sweet and to the point. Drawing upon "brevity is the soul of wit," Twitter users strive to entertain and educate their followers in a manner that's concise, humorous, and most of all, memorable. It's interesting, and often impressive, to see how people express themselves when given such a tight space-- it may even bring out their literary best. Tweeting, or "micro-blogging" as some have dubbed it, is perhaps our newest popular art form.

On the other hand, Twitter is yet another one of those addicting digital drugs. The instantaneous, up-to-the-minute tweets popping up in my feed leave me thirsty for the latest news and friend-related updates. But a mere taste isn't enough-- I find myself wanting to share my own news too. The result: signing in more frequently, tweeting more often. In the realm of cyberspace, Twitter is a massive black hole right in the middle of it, and I'm getting sucked in.

Not to mention that my previous comment calling Twitter an "art form" neglects the juvenile, incoherent babble that graces the pages of numerous D-list celebrities. The tweets of reality stars like Tila Tequila and Snooki aren't much different from what you'd find on the wall of a bathroom stall. These are the people with legions of followers numbering in the hundred thousands (and sometimes millions). And they contribute to what many eager tweeters consider to be the main draw of the Twitterverse: civilians stalking celebs.

Personally, I don't follow too many celebrities on Twitter (the count is at two with Ellen DeGeneres and Coldplay), and perhaps this is part of why I'm not entirely hooked. I also tend to tweet far less on the weekends or stray from Twitter altogether, choosing instead to spend time with my significant other (who I miss very much during the tweet-filled workweek. Is Twitter use a kind of coping mechanism for the lonely long-distance relationship? That's an essay for another time). Additionally, I try to limit myself with a max number of tweets, which is normally somewhere between four and eight. More than ten just seems like too much for one day-- once I hit the double digits, I back off. I don't want to flood my friends' timelines with drivel, which leads me to my last cautionary measure: avoiding the mundane (i.e. "Just woke up. About to use the toilet. Sweet").

Thanks to Twitter, just about anyone can publish their thoughts to the world. It's a gift, but many don't think about it that way. Using the written word to communicate to the masses used to be an amazing honor, and I always made that my mantra as an amateur student journalist. It all comes down to the fact that tweeting is, essentially, whatever we make of it-- in short, you are what you tweet.