Readers may have noticed a new panel on the right hand side of this blog, which gives a list of the things that I've recently posted on "Twitter". For those who have not yet come across this new phenomenon, Twitter is the latest thing for social networking on the Internet.
I was persuaded to sign up by a friend, and at first could not see the point - apart from anything else, you can't post anything more than 140 character (not words, characters!) in length. However, by some process that it is not altogether possible to explain, I have met some very interesting people, and discovered that quite profound thoughts can be exchanged in 140 characters. It is actually very good discipline for brevity, realising how many words we use that are not ACTUALLY necessary to convey meaning. And if I want to say more, like this, I can put it on the blog and post a link on Twitter, so that anyone who is interested can read it.
One drawback is the potential for time-wasting, reading what others have posted (or tweeted to use the correct jargon) and thinking up suitably witty tweets in reply. Another is concern about what one puts on there - especially if it turns up in other places. As already mentioned, my "Twitter-stream" is shown on this blog, and my latest tweet also comes up on my benefice web-site. In addition, The Church Mouse blog has a Twitter-stream for all twittering clergy. I'm wondering quite what anyone made of it who happened to spot that "countryvicar", my Twitter user-name, tweeted to a well-known author about naked bin-men the other day. All an innocent matter of someone misreading what someone else had written, but open to misconstruction nonetheless! My latest tweet is hardly more appropriate - being a wish for a ground-to-air missile to deal with low-flying aircraft disturbing an otherwise lovely evening. As I type, I'm probably being monitored by GCHQ as a potential terrorist!
I wondered whether I was lowering the tone of the Churchmouse Twitter-stream, after all, people perhaps look at it expecting to find uplifting words of wisdom, not a clergy-person exercising her questionable sense of humour. But I was reassured when I discovered that other vicars, and even bishops, were tweeting in just as daft a way as I do. Clearly the point (if there is one) of reading ecclesiastical tweets is to realise that clergy are just like everyone else - and that has to be a good thing!
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2 comments:
Well-known? Oh, I hope so! One day, maybe ;-)
Very interesting post, Frances. The funny thing is, I was thinking something very similar recently when I signed my contract with Legend. Suddenly it occurred to me that whilst no publisher would ever wish to gag their authors, there are, inevitably, things that it might not be in my best interest to tweet about. The silliness, I can probably get away with. It pulls people in -- and publishers love to see authors doing that, for obvious reasons. But I'm very conscious of not discussing publicly anything relating to the whole process etc without discussing it with the team beforehand. I never had to consider things like that previously, so it is taking a little getting used to!
Clergy are just like everyone else -- yes, I think that really is the power of Twitter and other networking tools. The breaking down of barriers. The underlining of similarities rather than differences.
Right, I'm off to tweet!
I agree with Gary about pulling people in and levelling us all off! And I have to be careful what I say about work as the MD of my publishers is on Twitter too. Come to think of it, it was her idea that I joined...
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