Middle-Aged Man Tames Twitter

I do my best to stay up with technology.

I make no claim of being on the cutting edge, but I think I have my bases covered when it comes to home computers, cell phones, the Internet and social media. I will add that having college-age children has been a tremendous aid when it comes to learning the “tricks of the trade” or some of the more interesting features of my Smartphone or social media platforms.

I think I can say with some certainty that I have the basics under control. I can update my Facebook page on the fly with my Smartphone. I can text, LOL to my BFF, OMG and e-mail, which is all old hat. This brings me to my newest challenge, learning and understanding Twitter.

When I first became aware of Twitter some months back, my first reaction was “this is not a social media for me”. For those of you who are not familiar with Twitter, it is a free Internet-based social media program that allows a person to “Tweet”, send a 140-character text message to the Tweeter’s “followers”. Followers being defined as a person/people who choose to receive and read your Tweets.

To describe it in another way, Twitter is a hybrid between text messaging and Facebook. I can send a Tweet message and instead of going to just one person, it can go to thousands, if you have that many followers.

Curiosity about Twitter got the best of me about six months ago. I got online and signed up for a Twitter account. I created a profile and sent a few tweets to ... no one, as I did not have any Followers. After an evening of fumbling around with the program, I logged out.

My brief experiment had reinforced my original belief that “Twitter was not for me”. I asked myself the question, “Do I have anything to say, on a consistent basis, which would be interesting enough that people would want to follow my tweets?"

My answer to the question, in a word, no. I understand why people might want to FOLLOW the tweets of professional athletes, musicians or entertainment celebrities because these people and their lives can be quite interesting, but why would anyone want to follow an average working Joe who lives in New Tampa? I had tried Twitter and came to the conclusion that I had no interest.

This all changed two weeks ago. You may recall, London & the UK was experiencing unparalleled rioting and looting. I was listening to a radio program about the riots and they had a guest on the program, a London cab driver who was sharing his firsthand accounts of the rioting and how Londoners we reacting to the violence. 

At the end of the interview he mentioned that he would be using Twitter to continue sharing pictures and his experiences. I was very intrigued by the cabbie's stories, so that evening I logged on to my long lost Twitter account and started following (@johnthecabby). He was tweeting - in real time - pictures of the riots and descriptions of what he was seeing. This was fascinating to me; in that instance I was hooked.

I realized that Twitter is not about what “YOU” have to say as much as it is about “What others have to say.” (I think there is a bigger life lesson in that last sentence but we can discuss that on another day.) Let me explain. After reading Johnthecabby’s tweets, I brought up the search window in Twitter and started typing in names of sports teams and athletes of which I am a fan. I started following a dozen or so.

What I soon discovered is that sportswriters and athletes often tweet breaking news before it hits the television or radio airways. It’s like having your own news ticker, but the news is from only the teams, sports or athletes you choose.

A week or so later I discovered that you can reply back to people’s tweets. I have done this, and low and behold, many of the people I replied to, sent messages back to me.

For example, Jack Arute, longtime ABC Sports College football sideline reporter and Indy racing pit reporter, and I have had a several tweet exchange regarding how the NCAA is handling the current rash of college football rule infractions. A starting defensive lineman for my Big Ten Alma Maters football team responds to my questions about the team via twitter. CRAZY!

Who knew that by using Twitter you can have your questions answered by the news-makers themselves? Today, I am following 69 people on Twitter and for some unknown reason, I have 16 people following me.

For those of you who have not tried Twitter, I highly recommend you give it a try! This old dog is really enjoying the new trick he learned. I can be followed on Twitter: @msuguydon