This had been my problem for a long time: I wanted to keep in touch with my dear-but-mostly-faraway friends, but between my eight-hour job, my two toddlers, and the long commute between work and home, there was simply no time to meet, nor blog, nor maintain a "real" social networking account so we can see what each other is up to in our everyday lives.
Fortunately, one of the aforementioned friends - the one who sits right beside me at work - bullied me to start an account in one of these new sites where all you have to do is periodically answer the question "What are you doing" in a small box, in 140 characters or less.
That got me started on the joys of "tweeting". And I'm enjoying it so much, I just needed to share it, so here are the things I love most about this mini-blog site called Twitter.
It takes less than five seconds to "blog".
Imagine, you only need to type less than 140 characters in a small box to answer, "What are you doing?" and you're done "blogging". Whatever you've typed is seen by all the people following you, even the ones who normally don't read blogs.
This has made it easy for me to announce that I'm currently "craving pizza, and stepping out to buy one," and "disgusted [because] it's raining outside and I didn't have an umbrella."
It takes 30 seconds to find out what all your other friends (or kids) are up to.
Since all updates on the people I'm following are on one page, it just takes a 30-second scroll down for me to know that Terry is "going wild with [her] new credit card in a bookstore," Emmy is "having instant noodles and loving it," and Annie is "missing [her] baby" because she's at work and her baby is at home, and she "[wants] to be a stay-at-home mom."
And yes, I've hear of people keeping tabs on their kids this way too, because kids tend to let their guard down when they're online, even if they know that their parents are following them - I guess they tend to forget.
It takes less than five seconds to sympathize, or react, or ask for details, etc.
With the above comments, I could easily click on the reply button to remind Terry to control herself(!), ask Emmy what instant noodles could be that good, and sigh with Annie that "I want to be a stay-at-home mom too!"
It lets me update through SMS!
So even when I'm away from my computer, I can easily let all my friends know that I'm "caught in traffic. Will be at work in half an hour," or "giving up and going home. See you tomorrow!"
And all this by texting TWIT through my cell phone.
It beats the daily news, hands down.
Is there an earthquake at the other side of the world? If one of your Twitter friends was there, you'll surely hear about it even before the aftershocks come.
If it's raining outdoors, you'll know: somebody will be tweeting about it. If there's a traffic jam on a major road, somebody will definitely be tweeting about it.
Twitter gives you first-hand news in real time, very convenient for busy people.
I still hope to update my real blog someday. And yes, I still want to open that Facebook account. I just don't know when I'll have the time to get to them. But when I do, I'll be tweeting about it.
