For those of you who may not know, twittering is an instant messaging service that allows you to communicate with the world by typing a message on your cell phone or computer using 140 characters or less.
Here’s how it works: The “twitterer” (you) answers the following question: What are you doing right now? Your answer to this question is called a “tweet” which you send as an instant message once you subscribe to the free twitter service. When someone either reads or replies to one of your “tweets” – they are one of your “followers”. According to published reports, everyone who is anyone twitters. Clergy are twittering their church services; health officials are twittering about the swine flu; experts are twittering about their areas of expertise; philanthropists are twittering about their causes; and politicians even twittered during the president’s speech.
So far, I don’t have a twitter account and I don’t tweet but with all the hoopla going on about it, I thought I should check it out.
Here’s what I found out: The twitter.com website says that “with Twitter, you can stay hyper–connected to your friends and always know what they’re doing.” This posed a couple of questions in my mind: Do I REALLY want to be hyperconnected to my friends and always know what they’re doing? Do I really want to have “followers” who are hyperconnected to me and always know what I’m doing??? Now, I admit that there may be people out there who would like access to "what I'm doing right now." I could tell them when I took my vitamins this morning or how empty my gas tank was when I filled it up. They may even be interested in the fact that I beat my high score on Brick Breaker while I was waiting for my flight in the airport on Sunday. OR – better yet – I’m sure everyone would like to know that I bought new ruler, some fabric, a few patterns and a pattern book when I visited “Quilt Country” while in Dallas last week! Of course, the escapades and accomplishments of my adorable grandchildren are fodder for a plethera of tweets, and news of the next quilt I plan to make is always a highlight. Yes – I do live a very exciting life and I probably should tweet on occasion to let the whole world in on all the excitement instantaneously. Why make anyone wait for an e-mail or a new weekly blog posting? What else do I have to do? I mean...I could spend all my leisure time twittering away…as time goes by…
On second thought, maybe I’ll put “twittering” on hold for now and put my new ruler to good use. I think I’d rather be quilting away…as time goes by.
Happy Blanketmaking!
Mary
PS - We got a new kitty this week! Her name is Sadie and she is a rescued cat who started her life 6 months ago in a shed. When she was found she was in very bad shape and her foster mom nursed her back to health. She’s very sweet, very loving and we are already crazy about her - and she did a great job posing for her photo!
