Once upon a time, I was in a meeting with a philanthropist who had spent many, many millions of dollars supporting NGOs around the world. As the meeting was gearing up he mentioned that he had just returned from a trip to Nigeria. I asked him if he was planning to set up a branch of his foundation network there? He paused for a minute and in a play on the “bridge too far” theme, said that no, Nigeria would be a “foundation too far.”
I’ve decided that Twitter is one “community too far” for me.
In this week’s Digital Campus podcast, Tom, Dan, and I discuss Twitter at some length. I was secretly hoping that Tom, our most active Twitter member, would be able to convince me. But, alas, I came away from the discussion more convinced than ever that joining the Twitter world will just distract me even further from the 517 other things I need to be doing (312 of which I am behind on).
I know others find Twitter useful…I’ve even written a post about someone who makes a good case for how it can be useful in teaching. But I’m still waiting for someone who can convince me that it’s worth the effort to manage another demand on my eyeballs.
So this is your chance all you Twitter-types out there. Listen to the podcast, hear my doubts and skepticism, and then convince me.
Haven’t had a chance to hear the podcast yet, but I think I’m with you on Twitter, Mills. I have no beef with shiny time-sucking internet widgets, as anyone who knows me can attest. But this one does not grab me.
It’s amazing how many digital historians are “tweeting” though!
For a while, Twitter was considered a joke… but it seems to be catching on…
I wonder, though, just how many people are reading individual posts? You may have hundreds of “followers” but is this no more than a number which bears no relation to true inactivity?