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In Part 1, I conveyed to readers the ambivalence, if not outright trepidation, I had about joining Twitter. Alas, in an attempt to widen my public platform for this blog, I decided to recruit a Twitter-happy former student of mine to help me join the (gasp!) Twitter-verse. Imagine his surprise when his Social Psychology Professor who was always deeply skeptical of digital media and Twitter in particular sent an email imploring him to help me join, as he put it, in "entering the 21st century."
And so it has begun. Of course, I had to immediately offer the disclaimer to those close to me that I was only joining Twitter for professional reasons, and that I would only use the medium in this capacity. Somehow that disclaimer made me feel a lot better about the decision, particularly when my younger cousin, who constantly mocked the concept of tweeting with me prior to this big sellout, sent me a text exclaiming that he was, truly disappointed in me for having become an official tweeter.
I have been on Twitter for about a week now, and I have to say, I haven't succumbed to it in quite the same way that I did to Facebook when I first joined. My most pressing concern, after learning the basics of how to navigate the home page, was who to follow. Given that I went through this process with my consultant, I was initially very professional in whom I chose to follow--Psychology Today, of course, other credible psychology related organizations, as well as media outlets, etc. Somewhere along the way, however, as day turned to night and I found myself at home on the computer, all of the sudden professionalism went out the door, and I found myself curious about which public figures were tweeting, and what they had to say. Does Britney Spears have a twitter page? How many people are following her? I found myself searching some of my favorite celebrities, disappointed to see Larry David wasn't tweeting, delighted to see that Jerry Seinfeld was.
And then there was Snooki.
To follow or not to follow her? My sister, who has been on Twitter for quite a while, and was present as I was scrolling maniacally through the entertainment figures on the screen, assured me that Snooki is quite funny to follow. Our cousin, also at hand, was more skeptical, declaring that I would lose all credibility with my students if I started following the likes of Snooki. I countered that as the resident cultural expert, Snooki was part of the culture, and perhaps I owed it to my commentary to start following the likes of her. Yes, I may have crossed over to the dark side.
In the meantime, I am relieved to report that I am only mildly interested in how to raise my number of followers, perhaps because I am still focused on who I should be following. I did, however, have a fleeting fantasy that on my syllabi next semester I would put my twitter name in case my students wanted to follow me before countering that this may somehow be a breach of ethics. My ego is not yet strongly tied to my number of followers, although I get a strange rush of excitement when I open my inbox to discover that someone new is following me, particularly when it is not somebody that I know. My current number of followers is around 30 or so.
I also find myself over stimulated by the constant new stream of information from the figures I am following, and may have to ultimately filter out some of the sources I am presently following.
For now, the social experiment continues; I will keep you updated as appropriate. In the meantime, for those of you already tweeting perhaps consider adding @Dr_Aalai to your list, and I will try not to flood your feed with inane commentary like what I ate for breakfast or what I am watching on television.
And there is still time for me to reconsider following Snooki, of course.
Copyright 2011 Azadeh Aalai
