Recently one of my students confessed: I’m really not a twitter fan, I get frustrated to see what people are posting and not being able to comment back. I’m trying to figure out what app I can get on my iPhone that will double post to twitter and facebook. I prefer facebook because I can make comments back. Regardless of my preference, I can’t deny the cultural impact of twitter. (Alice K.)

My response: I’ve been on Twitter for over two years and I can tell you that it has changed modes of communication. I called my sister in Long Beach to ask her about an earthquake that had struck online minutes before because someone had twittered it. It was hours before CNN mentioned the quake. The MJ story this past week came up in the feed long before it came up and then overwhelm TV & CNN. It’s not meant for deep dialogues, but you’d be surprised at the creativity and spirit that can be communicated in 140 characters. As with blogging, YouTube and podcasting before it, the mass media is going to miss the depth of human spirit being shared and focus on the jackass-esque, celebity stalking and then move on to the next shiny object. Nothing can replace a deep hug, but Twitter is more like a tap on the shoulder and a big smile from a friend.

Following is a video of Clay Shirkey at TED that my student included in her blog post:

Sources:

EDM613 wk4: Clay Shirkey and Twitter by Alice Keeler, http://www.selfservebaker.com/mathblog/?p=156 Retrieved 7/3/2009
Video: Clay Shirkey at TED, http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/575
image: Twitter Fail Whale is back by playerx, http://www.flickr.com/photos/playerx/3090739418/ Retrieved on 7/9/2009