Not Just Because
I don’t think I did a very good job of explaining the thinking process behind my Twitter experiment yesterday. I’ll try to do so now. When I first joined Twitter, I was in the middle of a research project. I needed information, lots of information, and in a short period of time. I followed as many people as I could. I clicked all the links. In a few months, I learned as much about educational technology as I did in my degree programs. During that time period, there were very few people I could identify based on their specialties, expertise, personality, or institution. I focused on individual posts, not people.
Once I completed my research, I began to think more about the individuals within this network. Rather than scrolling back through pages of my “recent” tab, I would click on an individual and read through their feed. This helped me get to know them better and discover deeper connections. I soon learned whom I should address with particular topics and interests and Twitter became more conversational for me. This is when I really started the excessive posting, which led many to stop following me!
At some point, maybe around nine months or so into my Twitter journey, I started connecting with many of these people outside the Twitter network. We connect through blogs, email, webinar tools, chat, etc.. I still check Twitter first to see if my friends are around and what they are working on each day. This usually informs how I will connect with them outside of Twitter.
This brings me to my latest Twitter habits. I discovered that I really haven’t been reading much in Twitter lately. I log in and click on a handful of individuals to see what they are up to, and catch my replies and DM’s. I rarely scroll back through the “recent” tab. I decided that following more than 300 people probably kept me from catching some of the important activity. Even though most of those people rarely post, if I get 5 or 6 posts on a page from people who only log in once a day, it distracts from the true connecting I appreciate.
So far I have enjoyed the process of starting over. I have made new connections and feel re-energized. I suspect I will get back to following 300 again, but it won’t be the same 300 as before, and I am satisfied with the changes.
April 19th, 2008 at 6:16 am
I liked reading about your process. Since I’ve been traveling I haven’t had as much time to connect with my twitter friends but I follow thru their blogs and maybe a chat now and then.
April 19th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
It’s different for everyone.
If you’re not being enriched by someone’s interaction, it’s fair to not follow them anymore. So, I’m not sad you stopped following me. (I’m not happy, either, but that’s ok.) I didn’t really talk to you that much, so I don’t deserve that attention.
April 20th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Jen- my experience is almost exactly the reverse of yours. I joined Twitter to network with people that had similar interests as me, but it has turned into me learning more than I ever have in my life. I click on as many links to articles and blogs as time permits when I am on, but that has really cut back the time I spend going through my feedreader. It seems like I dont have enough time for both. I think for now I have to keep Twitter, simply because of all the new resources and ideas that come from there.
As Ive got a little better networking, I seem to get more responses when I tweet out a question. Those responses weren’t coming until I established personal communication through DM’s and other outsideTwitter methods. That has added a whole new level for me that just reading blogs of those people wouldn’t.
April 23rd, 2008 at 10:49 am
It’s interesting to read your thoughts on this. You make some great points. In time, I will probably narrow down my list as well, but for now, the more I’m following, the more I’ll learn (I hope).
April 26th, 2008 at 8:07 am
I started on Twitter in a workshop last fall and for a while was an addict. I learned so much in such a short period of time! Lately I’ve been totally sporadic because (I thought) of technical issues with my twitbin, but also because (I later realized) I was taking more time creating my own projects with my teachers. This is okay! I’m back on Twitter this afternoon, mining the brains of people far smarter than me - of course, the Twitter collective is far smarter than any individual…