Twitter: A dip in the stream

I am a bit overwhelmed by the idea of a streaming real-time Web.  While it’s exciting, it can also be mind boggling at times.  Take for instance this week’s exercise using Twitter.  After a week of trying to familiarize myself with this medium, which included attempting to follow 10 assigned tweeters along with many class tweeters, I haven’t quite figured out its appeal to the average person or how anyone actually manages to follow more than a few tweets per day (and I thought managing blogs in Google Reader was challenging!).  I just don’t know if this is something I could personally keep up with without becoming bleary-eyed and exhausted while doing so. 

Erick Schonfeld’s post in which he quotes John Borthwick’s suggestion of “letting go of the notion that you can ever master the stream,” lessened my guilt about not being able to keep up.  No problem there; I have no grand illusions of ever mastering Twitter let alone the entire stream.  Borthwick is also quoted as describing the stream as something that “we as users and participants can dip in and out of and whether we participate . . . or simply observe we are a part of this flow.”  Currently I’m more comfortable as an observer but I do like the idea of still being a part of the flow.  

Although I feel trepidation about the reality of conquering Twitter on a personal level, I am encouraged and wowed by some of the very positive attributes of this medium.  Two in particular stand out to me.  Firstly, using Twitter and other social media for social and political change as mentioned in some of the readings this week is truly amazing and impressive.  Secondly, in his blog post Ken Fromm points out that “[Twitter’s] arbitrary constraints can have a liberating and profound effect on creativity.”  I have found this to be true; the 140 character limit per tweet forces me to focus like a laser on what I really want to convey.  Unlike blogs such as this where I could go on, and on, and on . . .   Suffice it to say, the “short and sweet” nature of Twitter greatly appeals to me.  I just wish that some tweeters would keep this concept in mind before posting their 20^th tweet of the day. 

One thing I think is important to guard against when using Twitter or any medium in this new real-time web/streaming environment is the notion that “if we are offline even for a few minutes we may risk falling behind, or even missing something absolutely critical” (Spivack, 2009).  I hope I never allow myself to believe this because the thought of doing so is truly a scary prospect.