DOING WHAT COMES RANDOMLY

A lot of my friends and family just don't 'get' Twitter. Indeed a lot of them just don't get me. But that's another story. 

'You're just chatting to a bunch of strangers' they say. Whilst that may be true I think it's fair to say that after chatting with this bunch of strangers for several years I have got to know them pretty well - and vice versa. 

As to why I chat to them I can only say that I believe that it is man's normal state to be sociable and gregarious so I'm just doing what comes naturally.

But now there's something new. It's now possible to use the technology of video chat such as Skype for instance, to video chat with total strangers. You just press the 'find me a random person somewhere on this planet to appear on my screen and start chatting with' button. 

Must be a pretty big button with all those words on it. It's also a pretty big step to take and one which is too far for my social stride to take on. So sorry but I'll be pressing the 'find me a person somewhere on this planet who I either know or am known to have a lot in common with' button instead.

 

A WEIGHTY MATTER

I weigh myself every morning. This degree of close monitoring allows me to keep the racing snake physique which you see before you, or thankfully for us both, that you don't see before you. 

This daily act of confession is carried out in absolute secrecy behind locked doors. I weigh myself in my birthday suit - obviously. I mean who knows whether my spectacles might make the considerable psychological difference between Umpteen stone 2 pounds and Umpteen stone 3 pounds. It could ruin my day.

Of course I've tried doing it standing on one leg but I think the wretched contraption has sussed me out and automatically adds on the weight of the dangling leg. You can see why this is a solitary, covert operation.

This being so, I was amused to hear of the new bathroom scales which are connected to wi-fi and automatically send your results online to broadcast to the world how your weight program is doing. 

We Twitterers get enough flak for allegedly tweeting about how much coffee we are drinking all the time. Can you imagine it? 

Tweet: 'Just weighed myself, put on 2 pounds today.'

It doesn't bear thinking about. Anyway, I'm off to get myself a coffee.

FALLEN OFF THE PERCH

Those friends of mine who don't 'do' Twitter say things like 'Well they're not real friends are they?' Maybe not in the sense of having met them but when I was a child and had 'pen' friends I hadn't met them either. It didn't stop them being real though.

They say you can choose your friends but not your family. The suggestion is that your friends will be good ones because they were hand-picked. So are my Twitter friends.

They are not 'virtual'. I usually know their names and where they live. Through their tweets I get to know their character and a great deal about their daily lives. Or deaths.

One of my Twitter friends died suddenly and unexpectedly on Christmas Day. We mostly tweeted about our mutual love of music. Her last tweets still sit there on her page as a reminder of the fun person she was. she said "Grooving". "Hips moving, saxaphone. I am gone so gone........"

....and now she is and I am sad.......so sad......."

IN PRAISE OF TWITTER

I am often asked to describe Twitter by people who say they don't understand it. So here goes.

Twitter can be used to tell people what is going on in your life and put up photos of you doing it, in effect like an online diary, but if that's all you want to do you're better off with Facebook. Twitter is much more about finding people who you find interesting and then linking with them ('following'). So rather than linking to your existing friends, you link to complete strangers from all over the world.

You 'follow' people who strike you as being of interest. Some of the time you read what the people you follow are saying and might decide to respond to them.

If people find what you say interesting, they may decide to 'follow' you, in other words, they want to keep an eye on what you are saying.

People use Twitter in different ways and sadly, some of them just want to try to sell you something so there are lots of 'spammers' on Twitter. The good news though, is that they are easy to recognise and then block so that they never trouble you again. The same is true of anyone who annoys you or is rude to you.

In my own case, I try to be interesting, and, almost as if I were writing a magazine for general consumption, I try to appeal to a wide audience. I will put up links to news items which I find interesting and which my followers might not have seen. I put up an occasional photo which might be of interest. I will 'tweet' funny quotes or jokes. I play music tracks (via Blip.fm) which I think people might like. Also, like many others, I will sometimes repeat something good which someone else has said. Most of all though, I respond and chat to people. There's nothing better than the personal touch!

This approach has introduced me to lots of new friends worldwide and listening to them has helped me to get a good feel for what it is like to live in their part of the world. It has also allowed me to interract with a range of people from different age groups. This has given me an insight into what people in their 20's, 30's or 40's are doing and thinking. I find this aspect fascinating. Think of it this way, it's like people-watching but taken to a whole new level.

It's no exaggeration to say that Twitter has changed my life. I think I would be devastated if it ever ceased to be. The only problem with it, is that it's easy to become addicted to it!