I've had a Twitter account for years now, but rarely post on it because, as I joke, "It's hard to reduce myself to 140 characters." And I've used the Twitterverse and the blogosphere to share creative nonfiction (personal essays?) and reactions to random encounters, instead of utilizing them as pedagogical tools.
Now that I'm learning how Twitter works to exchange professional theories, ideas and information instantly, I'm also a little freaked out by what I perceive to be my inability (or a deficit in my ability?) to focus, to take in, all the bits coming at me. I've downloaded TweetDeck as a way to "organize" all of the incoming streams but find the side by side columns of tweets to be overwhelming. It's like visiting the mall on December 23 without any real idea of what I'm supposed to be finding -- just the sense that there's something in this mess that I need to get but all of these people jamming the hallways with their own intense desires to find what they need to get are preventing me from figuring out just what that is and where I might find it.
In other words, my impulse is to run screaming. And I get, literally, dizzy. My eyes burn. My head hurts a little.
Even the #hashtags intimidate me. It's not the mall proper, of course, but it's Target, or Kohl's, or some other anchor store full of crazed consumers and burning-eyed suppliers.
Even Facebook, my go-to conglomeration of impressions, has become too much for me to mentally manage. The more I read, the more I'm fed. I'm getting the impulse to drop about 300 of my friends to make the menu more manageable. Or just to delete the page entirely.
Does anyone have any advice or suggestions about how to focus my baby boomer brain while I'm in the Twitterverse so that I don't completely lose it and break down into a gibbering 140 character tagline mess?
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ReplyDeleteHi Laurie - I'd cut down on your columns for Tweetdeck. Start with just a few hashtags you follow (and want to contribute to). Also, you can adjust the timing so that it isn't updating instantly but every few minutes. For a trending #, easier if it updates in slower intervals.
ReplyDeleteSome folks also use the "heart" or "like" to actually bookmark what they want to read later.
Thanks, Sundi -- I've done that and it helps!
DeleteI know what you meant about Tweetdeck: I find it overwhelming! I only use it when I am following multiple hashtags for a conference, which is very rare.
ReplyDeleteWhat I usually do is use two different browsers. I'm logging in to my own @OnlineCrsLady account in one browser (Chrome) and I stay logged in to my class account @OnlineMythIndia in another browser (Firefox). Since the browsers look/feel so different from each other, I don't ever get confused the way I do in Tweetdeck where the columns all look the same!
More tips in the "Twitter Bootcamp" we are doing at my school next week; if that can be of any use to you, super - it's geared towards my school but most of the Twitter info is very general :-)
Twitter Bootcamp
I looked at your instructions for listing and that's really helpful. The two different browsers is also a good idea. Thanks for weighing in -- much appreciated!
DeleteI'm with Laura on several points. I only use Tweetdeck when tracking conferences. I even find it difficult to use when doing a twitter chat. Like Laura, I use different browsers, but I go a step further.... using different devices and different screens for different twitter accounts since I have my own as well as my course accounts.
DeleteI have turned off all external notifications - no email, no pings, no beeps. Internal, twitter-only notifications.
I follow the 'let-it-go' mantra - what I don't see, I don't miss. If there is someone I haven't seen anything from, every once in a while I'll check up and look at their tweets. I also use lists to collect and check in on ppl in particular 'communities'. Start using lists to organize groups of people you want to follow.
And DM in twitter can be your personal backchannel where you can avoid the crowds in the mall. Think of it as your table in the mall food court where you can have quieter convos while all the rest of the twitterverse swirls around you.
Have fun with it! Helen
Thanks, Helen. I will indeed try to "let go" of things and allow the messages to flow over and through me. Your suggestions for quieting the noise are much appreciated. DM seems to be the way to go for important convos.
DeleteJust came across this link in my twitter stream - Tom Whitby is one of my must follow people - his blog says it well: https://tomwhitby.wordpress.com/2016/01/07/to-follow-or-not-to-follow-that-is-the-question/
DeleteOh, thanks for that one, Helen! I bookmarked that in my Diigo collection of Twitter stuff. I read by lists rather than by following, much like I read by means of specific circles at Google+ ... but that's something I've been pondering lately at Twitter. I'm guessing Tom will have some good advice as he always does! :-)
DeleteI understand the feeling. My question is: Do you think the challenge is the shear amount of information or is it the desire to be sure you "catch" everything that is important? As a social scientist I was trained to be comprehensive (e.g., a literature review requires that you read ALL the relevant research). I don't think you can be comprehensive on Twitter, let alone a range of other digital tools. It seems to me that you need to have a tolerance for "sifting" through the information knowing that, while you may find some nuggets that are useful, others will slip by you.
ReplyDeleteVery true, Reid! If people are following a hashtag where it really is important to review all the items, it's good to use something to harvest the feed so that you can review it at your leisure, kind of like coping with incoming email when you have time, not at the very moment it comes in. I use Inoreader for that... it is a seriously amazing feed reader which does RSS and also will follow Twitter, Google+ and Facebook, run active searches. It has helped me more than any other tool to feel more in control of the tidal wave of stuff sweeping by every day. Some days I have more time than others; Inoreader saves and files things for me to review at leisure.
DeleteThanks again, Reid and Laura! Good advice and suggestions.
ReplyDelete