Twittering.....

Lately alot of people have been running down "twittering". The thing that bugs me about it is that not one of those people who so boldly make fun of it have EVER EVEN TRIED IT. How can you make a judgement about something that you haven't experienced? That's like someone saying they don't like a book, when they haven't read it. Or someone saying that a certain movie isn't worth watching, when they haven't seen it themselves.

Nothing's perfect. Yes, there are some silly, mundane "tweets"... i.e. "Just washed my car, and now it's raining!"... or "Feel like doing nothing today" or "think I'm going to regret eating all those beans!".... but even the silly, mundane things in life can make you smile. Or make you feel connected to someone a little more than you did. Personally, it took me awhile to appreciate the twitter network. The main reason I started doing it is because it is a good tool to update all of my websites at once. I don't feel like I have to visit each site everyday, because twitter does it for me. But after doing it awhile I started seeing even more value in it.

Look, I know that there is no substitution for personal, one-on-one contact, but I do not have time in my day to check in with every single person that I care about. However, anytime I have a free minute, I can look on my tweet friends list and feel like I'm a little part of their day just knowing what they are up to. They make me laugh, cry and sometimes give me important information ("Hey guys, something's happening on I-65 south.. traffic backed up.. AVOID!!) Good to know. I love Charlie Neese's weather tweets... CNN Breaking News tweets... even "The Onion" has tweets that are hysterical. Our pastor and other church staffers leave inspirational tweets almost everyday... bible verses... heartwarming stories... and prayer requests too. One of my favorite twitterers is The Summerville News who tweets live happenings from a small town in GA, where my friend Tammie lives. Here is a tweet from today:

"Earlier today we had the McFender Bender. Now 9-1-1 is reporting a minor "run for the border" crash in the Taco Bell drive -through window."

Now, c'mon.. you KNOW that's funny!! What's the difference in taking the time to read the "funnies" in the newspaper or reading funny "tweets".. they both make me giggle!!

For singer/songwriters like me, there is the business side of it as well. You can post information about upcoming gigs and other events you want folks to know about. I've actually got a song on "hold" right now for a major artist, because of a tweet that my co-writer put out recently about a new song he and I had written and that it was now up on his myspace. The "right person" read it, listened, and bam! We just might have a song cut out of it!!

Ok... I'm going to end this rant about twitter by saying that before you knock it, you should try it. AND here is a good blog about it:

"12 Reasons to Start Twittering"
http://michaelhyatt.com/2008/05/12-reasons-to-start-twittering.html

Again, picking up the phone is great. Meeting someone for lunch and talking IN PERSON is even better. And I try to squeeze those times in as much as possible, but when you are a working Mom, Wife, Daughter, Sister, Friend like me... it's always great to be able to have other ways of communication when your time is limited. Twitter won't be for everyone. I still have a good friend who refuses to get a computer and use email. She thinks that EMAIL is just as bad as twitter... (if you have something to tell me, pick up the PHONE!, she says) And don't EVEN get her started on texting.... :-)

That's just the way I see it folks!!!