Twitter Flu: Are You Infected?

Everyone is talking about Twitter and Swine Flu these days. And both seem to be spreading. Two days ago my good friend and fellow pastor Kenneth Maresco caught the Twitter Flu. For me that's the sign of saturation. Whenever Kenneth gets into some new form of technology or communication I know my grandma is going to be next. (Just kidding, Kenneth.) Actually, the only reason Kenneth is on Twitter is because his son John David begged him to and told him that Al Mohler and Lig Duncan were on Twitter so it couldn't be evil.

Okay, I'm forgetting the point of this post. Oh, right...I just read an article about Twitter that I found interesting. It's called "Twitter Quitters Just Don't Get It." The author, Robert Strohmeyer, says that something like 60% of all new Twitter users quit using it after a month. Here are a couple of highlights from the article:

On Misunderstanding Twitter: "In my opinion, the most commonly heard complaints about Twitter stem from a misunderstanding of it. Chief among these complaints is the utterly bunk assertion that it's just a whole bunch of people heralding the trivial events of their daily lives into the void. (i.e., "I'm going to the bathroom now!" or "Eating a yummy ham sandwich!") Frankly, if that's how you're using Twitter, you're doing it wrong, and you should stop without subjecting your friends to a full week of that rubbish, let alone a full month."

On What Makes It Useful: "Twitter really can be a tremendous tool for information gathering and social networking. Sure, you can follow big-name celebrities who aren't likely to follow you back or care about you, but you can also follow minor celebrities and luminaries who just might follow you back and respond to you. More importantly, you can follow people you actually know, and keep abreast of the events in their lives and--more importantly--the ideas they're sharing in a way that requires very little of your effort or time. If the people you follow are at all interesting, you'll probably learn something from their tweets. And if they're not, you can find new people to follow."

Three Tips for Using Twitter: (1.) Follow people. A lot of people. (2.) Don't self-promote. (Or, at least, don't overdo it.) and (3.) Use a Client App (He elaborates on each of these in the full article.)

Like the internet in general, blogs and Facebook I think Twitter can be a useful tool for getting information and communicating with others. And like all the aforementioned it can be a big waste of time. So we all need to use it wisely.

What I find fascinating is how these new forms of communication are so constantly evolving and changing. Three years ago at the first Together for the Gospel conference a lot of people wrote about their experience at the event on their blogs. Since then, Facebook became all the rage and seems to have slightly leveled off. But now everyone is into Twitter. During last week's Gospel Coalition Conference it seemed that fewer blog posts were being written, but there was a ton of activity on Twitter. I wonder what will be next.

Anyway, if you don't want to catch the Twitter Flu, wear a face mask around Kenneth Maresco. He's contagious. (By the way, Kenneth is @kmaresco in case you'd like to follow him. And I'm @HarrisJosh.)