Why I Use Twitter

December 26, 2008 by  

With some time off from school I have been updating my Web 2.0 life. One thing I have been playing with is twitter. I initially did not get the website enough credit. It has been great to connect to the broader theater world. Through the help of Simon Ogden, @thenextstagemag, he set up a Twitter Group for theater people to share their websites and profiles.

This also correlated with me catching up on this season of Heroes. David Lawrence XVII, who guest stars, is a professional contact as we were in the same networking group at the Actors’ Network a few years back (it was right before I moved to New York, so it was a brief encounter) and we also worked with the same, now defunct, theater company. Once I found David on twitter, @dhlawrencexvii, that led me to see that two actors from Heroes are regular twitters, @greggrunberg & @breagrant. Grant is a tech savy, web 2.0 guest star who is also guest starring and blogs, while Grunberg is a familiar regular.

Laura Fitton sees Twitter as a village, which sounds very appealing. She says in the post, “It takes a village – a critical mass of interesting people – to read and write to. When my brain started to connect with the brains (and hearts) of others, it got really, REALLY cool for me. You may be looking for like minds, or you may want to be totally shaken up by new ideas. Both work. One day I suddenly realized this was, for me, tribe-finding. For arguably the first time in my life I didn’t feel as weird and different.” As a freelancer one who has his hands in many different areas of work, twitter allows me to bring all those people into one place. I can get information about what is going on in the theater world, while reading about the latest twittip from Darren Rowse, @problogger, and keep a beat on the people I met from Cal Shakes in Berkley, @calshakes. Why do you use Twitter?

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    Comments

    3 Responses to “Why I Use Twitter”

    1. Lindsay Price on December 27th, 2008 2:52 pm

      It too took me a while to get into Twitter. I wasn’t exactly sure how to interpret the rules of the game. But after a consistent attempt to keep up with it over this past month, I’m a total convert. I like that I can customize who I follow, I like those who talk about work and life equally (it’s not just forty tweets in a row about cats or the weather or what have you) And I find those in my world are generous, creative, and interesting to reach out to. It can be a true community. It’s wonderful to have as I live in a place without an active theatre presence.

      There’s this notion that the web takes away something from communication because of the lack of face to face contact. I’m not so sure that’s the case. I find it easier to jump right to a conversation – there’s no awkward pauses, no small talk, which I’m exceedingly awful at. You just get right to the heart of the matter.

      I also find that Twitter really works when people use it as a communication tool – a ‘engage with’ tool not a ‘talk to’ tool. When companies use it to sell, it doesn’t help the company.

      It will be very interesting to see where social media goes in the next couple of years. How long will twitter last, how will it change, can it be monetized?

    2. dennisbaker on December 27th, 2008 5:59 pm

      Thanks for sharing Lindsay. I totally agree that Twitter can be a great work/life tool. You are right it is a little easier to send messages to people and not worry about awkward moments if you were talking to them one-on-one. I am not sure how long it will last, good question? I am thinking it will grow and morph into something more. Maybe something do to with voice messages?

    3. Theater Lover on April 21st, 2010 6:27 pm

      @dennisbaker – I agree, I think a lot of people will get tired of twittering as soon as something similar but slightly tweaked comes along. That could be Google Buzz, but it’s hard to say.

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