The Twitter Summer We Did

My article from an old Media & Tech blog (September 10th 2011)

To hear Twitter speak for itself is to think that the quirky social media has woven itself into the very fabric of culture.

But I wondered how true this really was. That Twitter seemed to be at the tip of our tongue now, along with being literally at our fingertips. Well, the numbers are staggering. 5 billion tweets a month. 400 million unique visitors a month. 100 million active users, more than half of whom log in everyday. Including yours truly, I admit.

As Shane Richmond writes in Twitter announces 100 million global users:

These days, Twitter seems to crop up in almost every news story. In recent weeks Louise Mensch MP has complained of threats from hackers because she suggested closing down Twitter in times of unrest, and cricket commentator Jonathan Agnew has spoken of the abuse he received from Indian fans during this summer’s Test series.

We also hear it directly from the Tweety Birds themselves! I followed the trending topic ‘Things I did over the summer,’ and for some it comprised of only one activity.

“FIRST: WAKE UP … TWITTER, EAT, SHOWER TWITTER, DRESS MYSELF WHILE TWEETING, THEN TWITTER TWITTER TWITTER.” and “Tweet tweet and tweet”

The all-caps lettering and the loss of punctuation are a loud proclamation of how fluidly Twitter moves in our bloodstream, it seems.

“1/2 the things I planned to”

Ain’t that the truth! Whether it’s for work or for fun, is there ever enough time to do anything?

“… work on my beer drinking skills”

Speaking as a professional in learning and development, I fully appreciate this guy’s obvious keenness and commitment to building up his competencies. Seriously.

“applied for 300 jobs and got …………………………………………….. no replies!”

A sad, unfortunate reality for many of us. I wish this gentleman well. Hopefully someone offered him a job, after his tweet!

“Well I partnered with a Columbian ‘coffee’ cartel to make deliveries across the border. We all gotta eat.”

Some of us clearly have had to resort to bold efforts to do business in these difficult economic times. Coffee addicts around the world are thankful, I’m sure.

“live that good ol’ single life” and “broke hearts”

Do our intimate lives take on a different ‘face’ and a greater urgency in the summer? Do our love relationships begin and end with those dates on the calendar that mark the hottest time of the year?

“Successfully avoid people who I didn’t want to meet up with.”

On the other hand, no contact is a perfectly good thing for some.

“kicked a few people out of my life. If I can’t I stand you in the summertime, I definitely can’t deal in the winter.”

Yes, friendships should be something we want all the time, and should be something that can withstand the vicissitudes of the seasons.

“wait for winter”

Which brings me to my own contribution to this cultural phenomenon that is Twitter:

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD