As I exit my car en route to school, I realize, “Dag! This wind sure is making my journey much harder then usual.” Yeah, I’ll tweet about that. As I go through those fire-engine-red doors and enter the main hallway, I see Becca Hafter shining those pearly whites in my direction. While sitting in APES I reflect on this chance encounter and decide that I better tweet at her. “@beccahafter, it’s always great starting my day off by seeing you in the hallway 
.” After double APES ends, I am free and off to Español. Great, Señora is giving us a pop quiz! I know I failed that, so I’m gonna tweet my Spanish compañero Andrew to see how he fared. “@ magicmanAG, boy I thought that test was a doozy, what’d you think?!?”
This is Twitter, an ingenious play-by-play site supplementing the likes of other social networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook. It’s appealing to LM students because, much like a text message, Twitter only allows users to “tweet” messages that do not exceed 140 characters. Therefore, messages are short, condensed memos rather than the long humdrum messages that Facebook and Myspace sanction.
What started out as merely a joke for me is now a way of life! Whenever I see something funny or hear something especially noteworthy, I always think about tweeting. On Twitter not only can I tweet pictures via “twitpic” but I can also record videos via “twiddeo” and post them on Twitter for all of my followers to see!
Many people find Twitter appealing because not only is it a way to keep in touch with friends but it also allows laypeople to gain a glimpse into the lives of the social elite. In fact, some people join Twitter just to see what their favorite celebrities are up to. (Yeah @johnlegend, I’m stalking you.) It’s fun to see what celebrities like Ashton Kutcher (@ aplusk) and Alicia Keys (@aliciakeys) tweet to the world when their PR teams aren’t in charge.
Since Twitter is acquiring thousands of new users each day, it is safe to say that there are various “types” of tweeters, some of whom are engaging and other who are boring and quite frankly, annoying. For me, I find tweets with enlightening information about breaking news or bits of gossip paired with an amusing twitpic the most interesting. Though I would love to say that there are more good tweeters then bad, I’m afraid that this fragment of hope is far from the truth.
There are the School Work Tweeters: those that complain about all the assignments they have to do. (LM upperclassmen for sure). There are the Obsessive Tweeters (I may fall into this category), the Complain About College Tweeters (many LM tweeters are guilty of this), and of course the Pointless Tweeters (this year’s freshman class.) People must remember to stay interesting in order to maintain a nice follower base!
A typical response from someone outside the Twitter community is that it’s a tool for narcissists to broadcast their egocentric lives. Let me tell you, that accusation is far from the truth! Twitter gives people a forum to post their thoughts and feelings, while simultaneously creating an assembly that is conducive to discussion. (Shoutout to Ms. McDuffy!)
When I first got my Twitter account I was confused about what to tweet and how to work the whole thing. But now it’s easy, and in all honesty, I tweet whatever is on my mind. Now that I have provided you with the necessary knowledge to excel in the twitterverse, I expect to receive a tweet from you!
Conor Ferguson
Class of 2011
