Remember Korn? I do. When their first album dropped in 1994 they immediately became the voice for teen angst. By 1999 they were arguably the biggest rock band in the world. The members had everything. Money, Fame, Sex, Drug Addictions…. Then one of them found God.
Here is his story…
Hi, my name is Lee, thank you for visiting my site. If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to the RSS feed. Or if you'd rather get emails, subscribe to the Email List.
Twitter is the new MySpace is the new Facebook, whatever. It’s huge. Everybody’s doing it, even ESPN. It must be good then right? Well, in the 60’s everybody was smoking so you know…it might not be.
I joined a few months ago and have been twittering for a while, much more so as of late. At first I didn’t get it; I didn’t understand why I would want to post (or why people would want to read) what I was doing throughout the day. Then it all started to make sense to me. It’s not really about that at all. It’s about so much more. So I thought I’d throw down a few reasons why I like twitter, and a few reasons why you might not.
REASONS TO TWITTER
1. Networking – Twitter is the most powerful networking tool on the internet. Better than Facebook, better than LinkedIn, WAY better than MySpace. I overheard a friend explain Twitter like this: “Facebook is a place to follow your friends, Twitter is a place to follow your interests.” Very true. I’ve “met” a ton of people over the last month who have the same interests as me. We all share information, share tidbits of wisdom, learn from each other. In a span of a day you can meet 10-20 new people who are interested in the same stuff you are. So in that sense, Twitter is the bomb.
2. Information – Twitter is also the fastest place to get information. Big time Twitter users knew about the death of Farah Fawcett and Michael Jackson before the families. Well, almost. Before the news outlets knew for sure. Imagine a high school hallway on speed, that’s Twitter when it comes to spreading news.
3. Motivation – Believe it or not Twitter is motivating for me. I read a lot of other people’s tweets, I learn from them, I want to learn more myself. Since I’ve started following a lot of Christian authors, pastors, etc. I’ve been more motivated to read and write. I want to take it all in. I am more motivated to spread the information that I want to spread (the good news), to the millions of people who are on Twitter. (Or the 95 who are following me, whatever)
4. Education – I guess this falls into the information category, but not really. By information I mean news, by education I mean brain stimulating stuff. People posts links to How To’s, to What to Do’s, to Don’t do This’s. If you want an education on anything, just follow somebody who is an expert in that arena. Search the term and you’ll find a ton of people talking about it already. All the information (I mean education) you want is right at your fingertips, literally.
1. It Can Get Annoying – As much as there are great tweets, a ton of information and education, etc…there is a lot of wasteful stuff out there. Some people post a new tweet every two minutes. Some people are so anxious to get more followers that they forget to post anything worth following. Some people only post what they’re eating for dinner. So it does get annoying, sometimes quite easily so. But if you look past the annoying stuff (and unfollow the annoying people) you’ll get over it fairly fast.
2. You Could Get….Addicted – No one likes addictions, and Twitter is probably the most addicting social site out there. If you think Facebook is bad, watch out for Twitter. Everything is so rapid, fast, and for the most part useful, that you want to constantly be on it so you don’t miss a thing. You can imagine how bad that can be when you want to enjoy a quiet evening with the family, away from the computer. I quickly learned that I can’t keep up with everything. Instead I try to keep up with everything only when I’m on, when I’m not I could care less. (That’s probably a lie, but we’ll roll with it)
3. It Can Be A Waste of Time – Depending on the information you’re spreading, or receiving, it could literally be a complete waste of time (which social networking site isn’t?). For the most part, if you’re using the site in your favor, twittering can be useful. But if you’re not interested in networking or sharing information, etc than Twitter probably isn’t for you. You’ll probably end up tweeting what you ate for breakfast, and then you’ll fall into point number 1.
You know what I’m terrible at? The seesaw. It’s true. I only weigh 140 something pounds, maybe 150 after a barbeque, but surely not enough to manage the seesaw. I can never find the right balance. Everybody is bigger than me. I always end up stuck at the top, waiting for my partner-in-fun to step away so I can crash to the ground, so I can step away myself. As I do, I rub the bottom with the left. I wipe the tears with the right. Sometimes it’s different; sometimes I switch hands. It is never a pleasant experience, no matter how enjoyable the other kids make it look.
Did I just say kids? I did, huh? Woops. So maybe the truth is I haven’t been on a seesaw in a while. Maybe my idea of a seesaw is based on a sad experience during 3rd grade recess. Excuse me if it still stings. I’m still not getting on a seesaw anytime soon. As far as I know everybody is still bigger than me, I’ll still end up stuck at the top, I still can’t find the right balance.
I never can find the right balance. Not on a seesaw, not on a tightrope, not in life (Note: I’ve never tried a tight rope, I just know I can’t do it). I’ve pretty much given up on the whole balance idea. Although the life thing, the ability to balance things in life, I’d like to know how to do that. God knows I could use it.
I’m slowly realizing that the gap between what I want to do and what I’m able to do is bigger than I thought. I want to write (more than school papers), I want to build websites (learn how to build websites I should say), I want to preach (not at you, but for you). I want to make a difference. I’m able to do none of that. I’m able to wake up and go to work every morning. I’m able to read school books. I’m able to write school papers. No time for anything else. All these things I want to do, they hold less weight. They’re stuck at the top while the stuff I’m able to do does all the work.
Here’s the real problem: Everything I’m able to do, I want that too. I want work, I enjoy it. I want school, I enjoy that. Maybe I want too much. Maybe I can’t have everything I want. Or maybe I can, if I can find the right balance. A little of this, a little of that. Back and forth, like a see-saw is supposed to work. I’m sure I can. I want to.
Today was the first day in a long time where I had absolutely nothing to do. I read a bit, watched a bit of TV, then sat down and started tinkering with a new idea for a photo blog. I had “H2 Photo” up for a while, but it wasn’t working for me. Plus, I always forgot it was there.
So…now I have a photo blog that goes along with this site. Hopefully this means I’ll be taking more photos.
