When talking about Twitter, there's only just enough vocabulary to write a nonsensical haiku. Knowing the lingo can get you on the first rung of the ladder. Yet not everyone gets it. I wanted to find out why.
I confess... I don't do Twitter very well. I mostly lurk; when I post, the ripples are negligible; I overthink retweeting. My total number of Tweets is in between my Follower and Following counts. My Likes broke single figures, but most of them are probably me. And I've got zero Moments (I don't even know what that is). Imagine what it would be like to have a K in one of those numbers!
But I do get it. I think I know why others love Twitter and why my work would benefit if I could fit it into my life. This week, I have been reading a lot of the good advice around, looking for the specific pieces which will help me to move up a level.
routine
"You've got to make some time to use it" (Ted Cowan @tedcowan7 quoted in Twitter: A Cultural Guidebook by Raisdana @intrepidteacher and Beasley @klbeasley).
"I skim through posts for 20 minutes each morning and afternoon." (Ferriter @plugusin in Why Teachers Should Try Twitter)
Whenever you try to fit a new activity into your busy life, something else has got to give. Let's make sure it's not sleep that gives, but even brief and immediate Twitter won't work for you if you don't give it the time. I will have to be deliberate and build it into my routine.
"Monitor the most popular hours for your Twitter followers, then concentrate your most important messages in those hours for more effective tweeting." (The Teacher's Guide to Twitter)
No. Life's too short.
patience
"Be patient, and you’ll build a group of valuable followers." (Teacher's Guide to Twitter)
"The trick is to keep putting it out there" (Louise Phinney @louisephinney in Twitter Cultural Guidebook)
https://twitter.com/steveweatherell/status/782500144335974400
curation
"I have easy access to a stream of customized information and ideas that motivate me" (Ferriter)
"Check out the follow lists of people you find interesting and connect with them." (Teacher's Guide to Twitter)
https://twitter.com/steveweatherell/status/782504199405858816
There's no excuse for a boring Twitter feed, but it doesn't happen by itself. I have been learning from other users' tricks. Interesting people follow other interesting people. Hashtags, chats, trending topics, events, lists are all places to go to find a greater concentration of quality which you can divert into your own stream.
But I follow fewer people on Twitter than I have Facebook friends and that seems the wrong way around. Twitter is not even mutual; you are unlimited in what you can choose to let in. The famous Couros brothers, followed by a quarter of a million Twitter users, also follow between them more than 100 000. They seem to me to have a more sophisticated understanding of the meaning of Twitter.
production
"(As a lurker,) you still aren't sure what is worth sharing and you filter yourself often" (Raisdana and Beasley)
"The real magic happens when you share, too." (Teacher's Guide to Twitter)
Everyone has their own Twitter landscape. Lurking is an option and if I hadn't, I would not have discovered Jing at a very early stage, nor some really great lesson ideas which I now use frequently. Others only ever seem to retweet lists. Who are we though to criticise someone else'e Twitter? But there is a distinction between the consumer and the producer and that is the line I feel I should force myself to cross. One of the beauties of Twitter is its restrictions and learning to express myself and to attract attention is a new challenge.
understanding
Technology is understood largely by metaphor. Most of its language is appropriated from other walks of life (amazingly, a lot of it pre-Gutenburg: scroll, tablet, stylus, file etc). Understanding Twitter also requires some good analogies.
"You have to view Twitter as a river. Whether you’re in it or not, the river is going by. When I have a chance to go dip my toe in, I catch a few big fish. I don’t need to know what I missed." (Patrick Green @pgreensoup in Raisdana and Beasley).
This metaphor has long appealed to me. You only see a small amount of the huge stream that flows by, but so long as you trust that it will continue and that the interesting voices will be amplified so that a great tweet you missed may well be retweeted, there is no stress in the times when you are not busy with Twitter.
But the Twitter river image also has its limits, because the feed is not just linear, (as Manuel Lima says about trees) it is also a network with links along more dimensions than just the arrow of time. What strengthens these links is the power of an idea, what Richard Dawkins called memes. By appealing to other users, everyone's ideas, including your own, are subject to a version of Darwin's Dangerous Idea: The Survival of the Twittest.
Lurking is a fabulous start! And overthinking is the norm; everyone who gets started does it, so you're in great company! I'm in the process of getting my school on board with Twitter; the teachers are excited at its potential, but everyone is taking it at his or her own pace. I love how you've condensed the Twitter survival skills in this post... thx for sharing, Steve. :) Now you have one more new follower! ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks Liz. We are also talking about pushing the Twitter boat out into the stream. Now I've identified the skills in others, I'm hoping to improve them in myself. There are a lot of getting started guides, but fewer about getting good at it.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Steve - apart from that atrocious haiku! Lots of good advice & insight for those of us trying to enhance our understanding, appreciation & use of Twitter. Cheers. @isluxms
ReplyDeleteThanks Phil, You're right about the haiku. I'll do a limerick next time.
ReplyDeleteHi Steve
ReplyDeleteI very much identify with you on the lurker aspect - as an individual with an introverted personality, I much prefer lurking, observing, and reading than necessarily actively putting myself out there.
I really like how you've broken down the different facets of Twitter and building a habit of checking, tweeting and retweeting, and generally taking the chance of putting your thoughts out for the world to see (or not see, as they choose). I also love the quotes - it certainly looks like you've done your reading!
I wonder how naturally tweeting comes to current high schoolers, who are more native to it than I am, and how we as educators can help foster Twitter conversations as opposed to just passively following persons of interest.
Good luck!
Hi Joanna,
ReplyDeleteThe kids aren't native to Twitter either; they have already voted with their feet. Twitter is not a thing for current high schoolers at this school: I fear for the business model. At school, Snapchat is the most used. But I wouldn't bet that will be true in 2 years' time. There's a message here for investing one's resources into any one platform - you will become obsolete really quickly. We have to develop skills not tools. Today's Snapchatter will be tomorrow's dinosaur.