aspir(al)ing

Twitter-pated!

Posted by terri | Filed under blogmeta

Today makes one year since I relaunched my blog (which was still ra-se-n.net) as well as my then dormant Twitter account. I have not really done that many blog entries in the past year (34, not counting this one) but I have done a lot of Twitter updates (776, if you’re wondering.) My preference in the “method of oversharing” is clear.

I can’t remember when or why I first signed up for Twitter, but in the beginning, I hardly put it to use. I knew of a couple of social media gurus who used it, and I think I just signed up for the sake of signing up. It was when iPhone 2.0 came out that I had started to use it more and more; it made all the difference. Though I could have used Twitter via mobile web, it didn’t provide the fluidity of a native app which 2.0 offered. Needless to say, I twitter from my iPhone almost all the time.

I recognize that Twitter takes a lot away from my regular blogging as it meets the need of getting quick and sometimes random sentences and thoughts out there on the Internet. I think with Twitter, I may never get into that groove of blogging nearly everyday like I had back with my old blog back in 2001 – 2002. Things roll so much faster when all I need to do is get a thought out in 140 characters or less.

When I do put a blog out on aspiraling.com, I try to put a little more thought and cohesion to my entries, but more than half the time, I get distracted and end up giving up altogether. For 2009, I had hoped to make it a New Year’s Resolution that I would write at least one entry a week. Perhaps if I had verbalized it here, I might have actually stuck to it; but then again, I’m not very good at verbalizing things a lot of the time so that’s why it never happened. As I am trying to get more into the routine of things, I am placing hope that I can get myself and my thoughts more organized and that this current run of my blog will have more significant and interesting entries in its second year.

I definitely find my Twitter entries (or “tweets”) to be rather significant and sometimes interesting as I go through them. I find Twitter as an awesome tool to post-remember things that I’ve felt and experienced, even if they are about the most trivial things (and maybe not so trivial. Anyone remember the blackout aka #hipower?) And though I put them on the Internet to share with others, I don’t think I use it much as a tool for communicating with the world like many other people do. A lot of the time, I end up forgetting how much of the world is actually reading my rants and blurbs.

To celebrate my one year with Twitter, I went ahead and archived all 776 of my tweets into a .csv file using a web app called Tweettake. The app works fairly well. I’m a little sour that I hadn’t thought of creating the app first. It would have been an awesome challenge to create it for myself, but I guess I can be relieved that someone made it so that I can use it right here and right now.

Upon seeing what I’ve written in the past year in tweets and entries, I’m finding that it would be awesome to utilize my blog more and to make something meaningful out of my online presence, even if it is just for myself. I can definitely celebrate the success of my blog, but I would love to reach for more.

One Response to “Twitter-pated!”

BKMarkII Says:
March 29th, 2009 at 10:25 am

Woohoo! I’m excited to see a rededication to the blog medium . I agree, a blog certainly does take more time, but that’s not always a bad thing; for me at least. I look forward to reading more of your posts .

Aloha!

Hello from the island of O'ahu in the beautiful state of Hawaii. I am terri, a local girl who at 30 is trying to make sure that life doesn't entirely pass her by. I've recently become engaged and am enjoying living a great life in paradise.