Tis the tale of the Tweet just another hula hoop?
Ah: we see that little bird sign everywhere now.
People are tweeting,having tweetups, there are twegals, and yet one has to wonder if this micro-networking social media palava isn’t just an ego boasting,speed dating/marketing/advertising/cheap/waste of time or is it just another hula hoop, xylophone type passing phase?
I am not really one for the latest trends – my lil eagles aged 16 and 8 will tell you that they walks 3 steps in front of me when we go out embarrassed by my ‘cowboy boots’ (which I have in many different colours I must add) with my suit.
I don’t watch ANY soap operas, in fact I very rarely watch tv at all and I don’t buy a newspaper apart from staring at the ‘digger’ in the corner shop as I purchase my pint of milk of a morning (I do of course keep on the pulse of current affairs…..I will tell you how later)
I am perhaps, what some would call a tiny bit eccentric in my habits preferring to emerse myself in my kids, my books and law and if one was to predict where I might be on a weekend you would be right in saying that I can usually be found in a park with my kids or baking or drinking lattes n hazelnut.
I’m not in the market for a man or to sell anything and im pretty sure I have enough friends , family and colleagues to see me through my journey through life. I’ve got a job, career and I don’t need celebrity status or money.
I wonder then why this ‘twitter’ palava would appeal to me .
You see when I was a little girl around 20 months old a district nurse popped in to pay a visit to my mum who had just had another little baby and found me sitting on the floor writing short hand.
Yes, I had been copying my mums shorthand ( My mother was a Director and Company Secretary of a company and had been bringing her work up to date by attending to some shorthand whilst at home).
The district nurse took the piece of paper from this ‘baby’ and scrutinised it. She told my mother that she had never seen anything quite like it and returned in the following few days with two of her colleagues to see the work of this littleun who could copy shorthand before she was even two.
I found out very early on in life that I had a passion for learning.
Now as I sit contemplating why I like this thing called ‘twitter’ I have to remind you that to learn one has to have access to information.As a baby I was exposed to ‘shorthand’ and as a result learned very quickly how to do it.
Here is my top ten list of twitter uses to help you decide if like the hula hoop its a trendy passing phase or not.
1. Connecting with family ( All of my family are on it ) I learn all sorts about what my family are up to in their lives.
2. Accessing NEWS – even faster than it is printed.I learn whats happening in the world. Remember the Ashcloud folks
3. Accessing – opinion and REAL opinion from real people. I learn ‘how people think, and what they think’ – I’m human and im nosey.
4. Finding out WHATS on in Glasgow – I always like to visit a gallery when I can I learn where is good to go
5. Discussing politics – there are plenty of willing participants. I learn that some people should not be in politics.
6. Looking at Art – painting is one of my passions and twitter updates me on competitions and artists I learn to use my eyes in a different way.
7. Poetry– links to contemporary poetry published quicker than before.I learn to read poetry from another’s perspective.
8. On line quiz – actually i run this myself its a twitterquix just for fun. I learn new answers to questions I have never contemplated.
9. Having a laugh- gosh some people are so funny on twitter that it often makes me chuckle just reading the tweets.
10. Learning new subjects – just like that baby placed before her mother with a pencil and pad I interacted with what I encountered and twitter lets me discover unchartered territories.
None of the above list relate specifically to my career or law but you will see that LEARNING is There in every one of my reasons for using twitter.
Just as Plato’s description of the people in the cave , watching images flickering on the wall and thinking that what they saw was life. When the door of the cave was opened and the light streamed in they were blinded by that light.They could not go back to the cave once they realised that what they had been seeing was only mere shadows of the real life.
I think that this ‘twitter palava ‘ has allowed ME access to information I could NEVER access before. History books are written subjectively from the view-point of the author.Yet tweets tell thousands of people’s perspectives at any moment of the day.
Twitter: is it a hula hoop, a xylophone or a passing phase? you decide but LEARNING is a continual process and anything that helps that is welcomed in my book.
Use Twitter for work, play and learning 🙂
TOP TIP – Communicate today the way we will in the future
Michelle L.Hynes
legaleaglemhm
Legaleaglemhm's Blawg 