Gwen Bell poses this question for her Best of Blog challenge ’09: Did you meet someone you used to know only from her blog? Did you discover Twitter?
Yes and yes.
I thought Twitter would be stupid but I didn’t want to get left behind, so I signed up. I’m amazed! First I was just following news, then news and Adam Lambert; then news, Adam Lambert and photography sites; then news, Adam Lambert, photography sites, and people involved with the Bakersfield art scene. I’ve made friends. One of my new friends, whollyjeanne, uses the word “tribe” for the friends she is making on Twitter. I love that term, tribe, because I feel like we are connecting in such a way with other people who share common interests that we will be honestly using the term friend – becoming part of an extended tribe. Besides whollyjeanne, there is BeKatherine and daxtonsnini – geographically located all over the United States, but I feel like if one of these people put out a call for help, I’d be there.
So in 140 characters or less, it’s possible to get a real sense of a person. And I do get updates from certain news sites so I can scan them and click on something that interests me. I’ve followed people who end up tweeting too much and carry on conversations that could better be held on instant messenger or by texting, and that’s annoying so I drop them. I’ve wanted to follow people but don’t like the language they use, so I drop them. That sounds terrible, doesn’t it? Dropping someone? But I guess that’s what it’s called. I’ve learned that Adam Lambert’s fans are extremely intelligent, devoted and caring people, that LaVar Burton is a kind man without a mean bone in his body. Someone named Ben Decker started following me and I gave him a follow back, and I really like this guy. I’m not sure what he does, but I think he’s involved in events in Los Angeles, or a model, or something. But he is a lovely person.
But to the main part of the question: did I meet anyone? Yes. A group of us Bakersfield tweeps had a tweet-up!
We met at Caffeine Supreme, a downtown business, on a First Friday. It was really bizarre to walk up to someone, for example, the women in the chair, and say, “You must be glitzyorbit.” And it was. Or, look, MySoulIsHome is here! So instead of the web alienating us from real people and personal contact, we wanted to see each other in person.
We toasted marshmallows – that’s me in the hat. LissaFudge and prosejunkie are also in the photo. Lissa – whose name is Terry – also goes by BacPage and she keeps up a blog that chronicles all events artistic in Bakersfield. Prosejunkie has a blog and he’s reading and writing about the Best 100 books on the Modern Library list. Such interesting people!
Dave runs trivia contests at Sandrini’s Bar, so he came and we had some trivia fun at the tweet-up.
I donated packets of greeting cards that I make so there would be prizes.
We even had a visit from the man in red.
It was fun – and we all want another tweet-up soon. I may even organize it because so many people who wanted to come to this one weren’t able to. It’s the first thing I’ve felt like organizing in a long, long time. Twitter is good.
Tags: #best09, Adam Lambert, bacpage, bakersfield art scene, caffeine supreme, Gwen Bell's Best of Blog, tweet-up, twitter
Twitter, G-O-O-D.
The tweet-up was super fun! Hopefully, even more of us can get together soon. It was a pleasure to tweet & meet you this year Susan. Looking forward to more visits with you in 2010!
and i wouldn’t know you were it not for twitter, and that would be a crying shame. what fun to put faces to twitter names.
Twitter has been an eye opening experience for me as well. I’m just starting to dip my toes into the social networking thing and it has proven to be a wonderful gift. It’s amazing that something as simple as twitter can open up worlds of possibilities. I really enjoy reading your blog and look forward to reading more!
J