After a two and a half year hiatus, I have been back on
Twitter for a week. I came back because a colleague has just begun to play with
it and I thought I’d reconnect in support of her efforts.
As far as I can tell, not much has changed since I was last
active. The folks I follow, true believers in education amongst a cacophony of
self-promoters and wilderness criers are still tweeting out quotes, quips and
links to articles they think will change the world.
My problem, and yes, it is my problem, with Twitter, the
reason I left is this. I can’t build and maintain relationships in a sea of chaos. And
for me communication should be about developing relationships, not spouting
fascinating tidbits for whomever happens to be floating by. Have I grasped
anything useful in the last week by watching the tweets scroll down the screen?
Yes, I’ll admit to having learned a few things I may not have known without
Twitter. Therefore, if I am to stay active on Twitter this time around, I’ll need to change my
expectation of the medium. For it to work for me, I’ll need to treat it more as a river
of information and opinion rather than a place to connect with friends.
I took a break from Twitter because I was more comfortable
with my “friends” on Facebook, most of whom I know well in my day-to-day real
life. But I’ll give Twitter a go for another week or two and see what happens.
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