I’ve decided not to follow a strictly linear path to my 23 things, jumping 9 (browsers) to dive into all things Twitter and the live discussions that have been taking place this week. I’ve thought about setting up a twitter account before, but have always been slightly daunted on a number of levels:
- Where do I start?
- What does everything mean (especially that # symbol)?
- What clever insightful thing can I say in 140 characters?
Well thanks to Ric’s excellent instructions – more than instructions, an interactive guide giving you a real flavour of what Twitter is all about – I feel I’ve overcome points 1 & 2: not sure 3 is ever going to happen!
Biggest initial decision you have to make when setting up your account: who to follow? Despite Ric’s reassurance that you can change these choices after you’ve signed in, I just couldn’t bring myself to select the choices Twitter were suggesting for me – so a big NO to Wossy, Moyles, Carr and so many other celebrities staring back at me. My choices were largely influenced by my interests in politics, current affairs and sport, with a sprinkling of helpful suggestions from Alison (wife). So a thumping big YES to Owen Jones, Michael Rosen, Billy Bragg, Jonathan Legard and Caitlin Moran.
Once in, you can then seek the safe haven @UoS23 (set up by Ric) to follow and discover some “real” people to follow: your Library colleagues. In some of the lively discussions that have taken place (particularly favourite film) it’s felt a bit like being on a school trip with your classroom friends: a first time visit to an alien city where we’ve all stuck close together under Ric’s (our teacher) guidance, gawping at the inhabitants of this strange new world – very enjoyable.
It’s easy to recognize the addictive nature of Twitter, after a couple of days interacting on @UoS23 I found myself (egged on by Alison) following the twitter feed of BBC’s questiontime #bbcqt. Anyway, instead of my usual ranting at the screen Twitter offered me the opportunity for some instant gratification – my comments out there for everyone to see…or so I like to believe.
From a work perspective, Twitter is another complimentary medium (an additional channel) from which to communicate to the student community : if they’re using Twitter then we should be too. A good example of how it can work is the Library hash tag #findmeaseat: find me a seat in the Hartley Library. Students tweeting this hash tag can communicate with each other and locate areas where there is available seating in the Hartley Library – extremely useful during busy periods. Ultimately there’s always a limit (both ways) to how much can be communicated in a tweet of less than 140 characters. Unless you are really “clever” and “insightful” like Michael Rosen @MichaelRosenYes; my favourite tweet of the week retweeted:
“Gove says he’s lost the bus ticket that he was writing the maths curriculum on. Urgent if you find it, please return to DfE”
Old (Saint) Nick 
Hi Nick,
Good to read about your experience on twitter. I imagine you could be a very happy tweeter.
Yes once you’ve got a handle on who you want to follow very good for keeping up to date with what’s happening in the world