Unshelved by Gene Ambaum and Bill Barnes

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Monday, May 05, 2008

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Twittering Away

by Bill ( link to this post | email me | my twitter )

A brief update on my emerging love affair with Twitter.

I only have two coworkers - Gene and our store manager Jana - each of whom I meet with once a week and talk to every other day. And of course I work at home, so I see my family quite often. But I miss the hallway conversations of a workplace. I tried replacing them with instant messaging, but it's too 1:1 for my taste, and my friends aren't always online when I am (or else they're pretending they're not).

Twitter is my new workplace hallway. I'm tracking the passing thoughts of a dozen cartoonists (and growing), the ones they'd never bother blogging. There are pithy comments, advice, opinions, confessions, news, all posted asynchronously so it doesn't matter who's online when. It can be noisy, and it's easy to fall behind, but unlike a blog no one assumes you're reading it all and so you can just start from scratch any time you want. And if someone is particularly noisy you just drop them from your list.

For my part it's a place to talk about myself without feeling self-concious because that's what it's there for. And I do so love to talk about myself.

Bottom line: I'm certain it isn't for everyone, but Twitter fills a communications gap in my life. Follow me.