My Twitterversary & The Future of Writing
Wednesday, March 12, 2008Today marks my first Twitterversary. Yippee yahoo, happy Twitter Birthday to me. As a social networking platform, I have truly loved the interaction that Twitter (and my Twitter network) affords me. In looking back over the last 365 days (and 2,543 tweets), I’m both amazed at how much I’ve learned in just 140 characters and equally concerned about what implications Twitter and similar technologies have for the future of creativity. I’ll first illustrate my concerns with a simple diagram, following explanation with a series of questions.
Maybe you can provide the answers.
This hints at, in some measure, my concern.
You see, blogging carries with it a potential to expound, elaborate, and develop. Written posts can be short or they can be long, fused with images or sound or video or silence. A blog post is truly an empty canvas, waiting to be fashioned by the literate artist. But as blogging devolves (unfortunately for all?), the process is simplified and the limits of emerging technologies, tools, and trends, become far more apparent. A tumblog, for example, is often much shorter than a traditional blog post – a burst of thought, an idea, an expression of content worthy enough for half-hearted submittal. And Pownce? Yes, nice try. You may post messages, links, files, and events (and even socialize), but to elaborate? Nay. Not here, good boy. You’ll be hard-pressed to take that thoughtful drivel elsewhere. Then Twitter, you tease, with your seductive 140. Even I can find words sufficient to fill such a gap. After all, I’m well-trained in the use of text messaging. And shallow thought? Well, that’s easy – for even my kids have taught me to text. Because Who. Really. Needs. More?
Strange how technological trends ofttimes return to those once simple roots, isn't it.
I gueS datz wot woriez me most.
- In embracing such simple tools for collaboration are we trending toward mediocrity – in our writing, in our reading, in our thought?
- With so much information and so little time, are we shrinking the attention spans of our youth in such a manner that they truly will lose the ability to think in sentences longer than 140 characters?
- If Shakespeare or Poe or even Dickens were bloggers today, do you think they would also tweet? And if so, how would such writing affect their work?
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Interesting. But, why do you imagine blogging vs. tweeting as a zero-sum game? For me, so far, I think of it as "I have a quick question or a simple thought" (twitter) vs. "I want to (try to) expound, elaborate, and develop (your words)." Asked differently, do you see blogging "devolving" into twittering? I hope that doesn't happen; I think there's PLENTY of room for both forms of communication.
I agree with Jon. One thing that always concerns me when questions like you posed are raised is that we assume too much. You are assuming that our youth is actively using these tools in their everyday lives. I don't think that many of them use twitter, although many of them do text. According to Twitdir.com there are at least 941,000 people on twitter. (I looked and that was the only number I could find. Correct me if I am wrong.) That doesn't account for our whole youth.
Blogging sure does improve writing. I just wish it would improve mine more.
I agree with both comments and see blogging and twitter as two separate communication tools, used for very different reasons. Twitter is the quick reply to a question, or not, blogging is a way to stretch thinking, your own, and hopefully anyone else who may read it. I don't think twitter is a tool used by the vast majority of our youth or as a collaboration tool in isolation. Twitter may be a place for people to make an initial connection, but I believe the initial contact leads them to deeper discussion and other forms of communication.
Jon and Jethro-
In writing this post I am simply expressing a hope that Twitter and other simpler, limiting technologies don't replace blogging in the minds of our students.
It has been my observation (and perhaps this is where I'm wrong altogether) that as many of these simpler technologies build momentum, other more complex technologies - like blogging - take a back seat in the amount of time people dedicate to using them. It seems to me that as Twitter has gained in popularity, fewer and fewer blog posts are being written.
Now, is this trend a result of the fact that many of the posts that used to be written were of a trivial (share a link here, tell a quick story there) nature or is it because people really aren't spending the kind of time required to write a thoughtful post because they can get the social interaction that blogging alone used to provide in a much simpler way (through Twitter)?
I hope, for creativity's sake, that the former is true.
Sorry Robin, you posted your comment before I was able to respond to you, too.
I ditto to you what I said to Jon and Jethro and hope that you're right when you say that Twitter leads people to deeper conversation.
Darren, I hope that the former is the case as well. I take issue with the idea that shorter technologies not "replace blogging in the minds of our students." I don't know that blogging even made it into the minds of our students. I think that we understand and use these tools b/c we are interested in them and try to find them. Other people neither know that they exist nor even care about them.
I believe that our youth care and use things that we "teach" them about...Please don't assume that I am talking about education here! We don't stand up in front of a class and teach them technology. Kids find out about things however suits them, and the adult/media/business/church/friend/family/any-other-influence reaction to that technology is how they are taught. With texting, their parents may not know what is being said, and that is why they might like it. Blogging may turn them off because they don't want to be deep, because their friends think it is uncool to be thoughtful or smart. Those are just two bad examples.
I also agree with Robin--hopefully twitter does lead to deeper connections and thoughts. And honestly, I don't mind leaving the fluff/trivial stuff out of blogs.
Judge for yourself, but I think that my blog posts have become better since I started using Twitter.
What's your Twitter name so I can follow you?
@Jethro - I couldn't agree more, Jethro, that participating in social networks like Twitter can greatly enhance a blog - and ultimately, raise the thinking of participants to another level.
But your statement that "Blogging may turn them off because they don't want to be deep" is what really worries me most. Especially if we assume that the communication that is taking place on Twitter is deep enough.
My point? We need to expect more from our students. We need to not let them assume that shallow thought is acceptable. Just because kids can get by without thinking "deep" doesn't mean that they should.
@IMC Guy - I'm ddraper on Twitter. Come along for the ride. :)
Happy Twitterversary honey. I love being able to see what you're doing all the time. :)
I don't think it's twitter that's limiting our blogging rather the cumulative effect of trying to maintain it all and keep up. Impacts I have seen with twitter are: some bloggers blogging less because they feel that their posts have to be more thought provoking because so much is said on twitter; people expanding their conversations from twitter into a blog post; and whether we like it or not it does drive traffic to our blogs (twitter is one of the main referrals for my blogs).
What I really don't like about twitter is the number of users that are neglecting or getting rid of their RSS readers because they feel that Twitter links provides them enough blog posts to read and in comparison their RSS Readers feels boring compared to the vibrancy of twitter links. I believe this is the bigger danger because of the danger of limiting readership and get caught by group thinking.
Blogging definitely makes me a better writer; and twitter makes me more concise.
I think you are right Sue, others have written about Twitter as RSS Reader. If people believe Twitter provides enough links to blogs there is definitely the possibility, as you say, to limit thinking to that of a group.
I agree, Sue and Robin, that Twitter should never replace the more elaborate feeds that can be provided by an RSS reader.
Perhaps therein lies the true danger: that we cease to take the time to read in-depth - because on the surface it may appear that we're already reading so much.
I agree that it's very difficult to keep up.
Angee - Thanks for wishing me a happy Twitterversary. Today's been << sniff >> a special day for us both. :)