If you're reading this blog entry, chances are good that you
are a reader of books, too. After all, that's our whole reason for
existence.
If you're a reader of books, I'd like to argue the case for
you to replace all of your bookmarked blog links with a list of people to follow
on
Twitter, and I have a readerly reason why. I won't try to explain Twitter's
mechanics here (for an excellent introduction to the social-media site, look at
CNET's primer), but I
will tell you that the best thing about Twitter, IMHO, is that you can closely
and carefully monitor who you follow.
That's important to my ultimate point (bear with me!). There
has been a lot of blather in old and new media both about how dreadful Twitter
is, who wants to hear about someone's sandwich, blahblahblah. Well, yes, there
is a certain amount of talking about mundane actions on Twitter - even from the
famous and important. (Author Joe Finder was preoccupied for a while with
finding good sources of Passover Coca-Cola, the kind sweetened with cane sugar
instead of HFCS.)
However, you don't have to read any tweets you don't want to
- and you don't have to receive tweets from people who consistently send out
information that you don't want to read or see. You have complete control over
your "follow" list - the people whose Twitter feeds you decide are interesting
and/or relevant to your own life.
Why is this good for book readers and lovers? Almost everyone
on Twitter also has a blog, and most people send out their new blog posts via
Twitter entries. If you've got your favorite bloggers on your Twitter list, you
also have their blog links within easy reach - and you don't have to read much
to get updates. This is the beauty of Twitter. You can check your page, or check
someone else's page, allowing you to narrow its focus further. Twitter also allows you to find more bloggers
in a certain topic area, by checking the follow lists of people whose work you
really like - a quicker way of checking out a "blogroll."
Again, why is this good for book lovers? The less you have to
read online, the more time you have to read offline, of course! I'm all for any
tool, online or off, that allows me more time and space to indulge in my passion
for books...and again, if you're reading this, I suspect you feel the same way.
Message Edited by Bethanne on 04-23-2009 03:05 PM
Melissa_W
on
