Why I Tweet
I thought I’d make a bullet-pointed list of why I use Twitter to get some of these things off my mind. Maybe it’ll serve as some kind of disclaimer so I don’t have to keep telling people that it is my personal Twitter feed and the views and opinions I express there are my own, not that of the organisation I work for or the people I work with.
So the main reasons I tweet are:
- to pass comment on news or current affairs – to say something without engaging in a lengthy debate or analysing every last detail of it;
- to communicate with people – I work in a quiet office and don’t particularly like distracting others. I communicate with work colleagues based across the campus to update them on my activities, to ask for help or arrange a lunch date;
- to network with librarians from other organisations – Although I say I don’t use Twitter for work I occasionally seek advice from other professionals or engage in discussions about issues relating to librarianship or Cilip (our professional body);
- to keep in touch with friends who don’t live near by – I don’t particularly have the time to write long emails and I’m not a fan of procrastinating on Facebook so I like to write quick 140 character messages to say ‘hey, I saw this and thought of you’.
- to bookmark web links – I use delicious mainly to store my bookmarks but I like sharing the funnier ones as small distractions from the mundane;
- to follow # tags of the things I’m interested in – such as #iranelection, #mumbai or #wwdc or work related tags such as #uosweb2 or #scaweb2 and conferences or particular JISC projects, honestly it all depends what mood I’m in.
I’m not interested in the latest research about how Twitter ’should’ be used or whether I’m doing it right. Quite simply, Twitter is my brain fart – if it smells too bad, please don’t read it.
That's me... Lex Rigby
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