Tuesday 10 March 2009

Twitter Virginity: Lost

It was only a matter of time. Yours truly has fallen in with bad company, bad company who spend their time Twittering. I know a bandwagon when I see one and it would be very out of character if I didn't hop aboard. So for the first and last time ever, here are my tweets for this day of our Lord, 10th March.

>>> Sob, only two weeks of Battlestar left! What the hell is going to happen?

>>> What to blog about later on? Yesterday's will do in the mean time: http://tinyurl.com/auaevj

>>> @jochristiesmith Reading anything interesting?

>>> At home now but the cupboard was bare. Off out to get some mushrooms. The glamour!

>>> @jonanderson44 - Lorna Morgan eh? She scheduled for a guest post at the 'sunrise?

>>> That coffee was disgusting, but I still drank the lot. Is this the sign of a serious caffeine addict?

>>> My coffee smells like oxtail soup. Not impressed.

>>> Coolio. Another 1,347 words to add to the old PhD done so far today. Time for a stiff coffee and a short break methinks.

>>> Twas nice to have luncheon over the computer catching up on today's blogging. I do wonder how people with jobs manage to blog so frequently.

>>> @catherinebuca - no shammin' here. It's essential for my intellectual development.

>>> @alixmortimer, comforting to know I'm in such exalted company.

>>> Nice cup of tea and a good laugh @ the expense of a certain TU general secretary. Sounds like NorScarf on Sat was interesting too.

>>> Bah, Brother S has disturbed me for a tea after a mere 170 words :(

>>> Right, getting down to work now. Must avoid tweeting for the next hour.

>>> Do I really need something else that will distract me from my PhD?

>>> Viva Longton Help the Aged - 10p a book!

>>> Well, here I am. Twitter. Does that mean I'm now down wid da kidz?

You've got to pity the scholars of the future. Whereas scholars now excavate the archives of historically significant personages, future academics will be raiding rusty Twitter servers and unearthing sketchy thoughts on Elbow gigs. I can already see theory wars being waged over the best tools for the job. Who would win? Content analysis? Post-Heideggerian hermeneutics? Can I achieve Foucault-style academic fame by writing the definitive sociology of tweeting while skipping the gay S&M?

There's plenty of potential with Twitter in plugging material - it's no accident most of the big blogs use it to tweet their offerings and pull in those numbers. And I know, one of my posts got tweeted t'other day and brought the grand total of five people to this here blog. Not a lot, but proof it does work. So time the revolutionary left go where the yoof are (and Stephen Fry. And MC Hammer) and got twittering!

Aside no. 1 Bloggers - it might be tempting as filler but never ever use Twitter updates to make up a blog post. It looks crap and lazy. I've only done it today for illustrative purposes. And general crapness and laziness.

Aside no. 2 - I'll be your twitter friend! I'm anybody's! Follow me
here. I will guarantee you a rolling PhD wordcount, observations on Keele coffee, blog plugs and other highlights from my daily itinerary. And because I'm full of tweety love, feel free to plug your twitterly presence in the comments.

6 comments:

Charlie Marks said...

Twitter? God help us!

It's like blogging for people with short attention-... what was I saying?

Anonymous said...

Hello fellow twitterer, I only recently lost my virginity and haven't figured out how to send direct messages so am doing it here instead.

Look forward to hearing you chirp.

Millie

Phil said...

Hi there Millie, hope you've managed to work it out now!

Don't forget to follow Stephen Fry and MC Hammer. It's the law!

ModernityBlog said...

ahh, Phil, next you'll be telling us that SPers are using Skype ?

:)

Anonymous said...

You're a but late in the game eh Phil? I've been tweeting, er, Tweeting, for a couple of months now - have five followers as well (larger than the memebership of many left grousps) and write absolute one-line bollocks for no purpose whatsoever.

Prima!

Anonymous said...

Actually that should read Twittering. And I have six mighty follwoers! Shows how much attention the at the Tendance pay to this fad after it passed the peak a few weeks back.