Twitter as a Teeny Bit of Microblogging Fun

I finally did it. I broke down and created a Twitter account.

For those who have been hiding in the desert for the past couple years, Twitter is a microblogging site that lets you post quick messages, 140 characters or less, to legions of fans (or in my case, myself).

It's another social networking site; the kind I sort of blasted previously regarding Facebook. Twitter only has spambots, so far...I had three "girls" following me within two minutes (following means they're monitoring your "tweets", or updates) telling me how they loved hot guys. I blocked them right off the bat.

It's kind of neat in that it is convenient; I can send updates from my phone (unlimited texting to number 40404 after you register your phone), my iPod over wifi, my computer,...there's only about have a metric f***ton of applications dedicated to monitoring and updating your twitter account.

The truth is that I started monitoring several accounts from the web, and eventually it just got to be a pain in the butt. I had started checking in on a college student with a real knack for utilizing social media in ways most authors could probably take notes on (I don't know how she does it and still has a life to blog about!), a local journalist that gives some interesting insights to what people are like offscreen, Mur Lafferty (an author I have blogged about several times before), and a few others that are just really funny. I'm still expanding the number of people I'm following.

I wanted a way to consolidate them all from a simple interface; everything I installed, however, required me to register an account. So I registered. I set up my phone. I figured if I was going to have another account, I might as well give it an honest try before hating it.

I'm thinking of using it for notes, like web sites I want to make note of or notes to myself. I don't know yet. It might be a good tool for trying to get rid of my "wordiness" problem, since each tweet is limited to 140 characters.

The only thing I REALLY have to careful of is being too honest. It's too easy to want to spew some random brain fart that could land you in hot water, especially if it's about work or personal things. You can hide your tweets (make them "personal") so only friends can see them...but still, it's a risk that too many dippy teenagers (and a worrying number of adults) don't think about now. So basically I only post things that I wouldn't mind my mother seeing.

(Another issue is that with my brain's goofy wiring, I still say things that are inappropriate...so says my wife, anyway.)

Anyway it's an experiment. No, I can't share the link here since it can reveal a bit too much about my superhero identity. Some of you already may know who I am. Others, if you're really curious, feel free to leave a comment with info on how to contact you and if I am adequately removed from you professionally I'll let you know who I am.