Why You Won't Find This Cowboy On Twitter (Yet)

I am just NOT a Twitterer. I am as Techno Geek as the next red blooded real estate agent out there but with Twitter I still don't get it. All you long time proponents and lovers of Twitter where it is driving mega millions of business your way, please do not throw snowballs my way or call me an idiot or a dinosaur. This is just one man's opinion. I love that it is working for YOU!! With me I have a different take on it.

Twitter, is a 140 character microblog where you send Tweets to your list. To me I look at it as broadcasting a text message. On the receiving end you are receiving these blasts from others.

Where I have a problem with it, is the simple question, what is the point? A common reason for this technology advance is answering the question, "What are you doing?" That's where I really have the problem. A) Who cares about what I am doing, and it is not interesting anyway, and B) Why do I care what you are doing? One on one with your family or significant other, but the sea of humanity? Explain that to me...

My assessment of Twitter when I learned about it early on was WHAT A HUGE FRIGGIN' WASTE OF YOUR TIME. These are irretrievable seconds and minutes of your life that YOU ARE NOT GETTING BACK typing mindless messages and reading and sifting through some messages that are PURE GARBAGE.

Are there some benefits of using Twitter and sending and receiving Tweets?

Well sure. As with anything there was originally a method behind the madness. What good can come from Twitter? How about sharing ideas and asking for help? Notifying others about events as you hear about them. Disseminating information about new tools as you find them. Sharing my blog post when it is released and reading others. Who on Active Rain wouldn't like that?

But the problem is those precious seconds again. You already were on information overload prior to this bit of fun entering your life. Where are you going to find time for THIS??? You already have all those emails you work on reading, answering, and deleting each day. Maybe Twitter will supplant email.

Twitter in essence allows who you broadcast to and receive from to know what you are doing, thinking, seeing, feeling at the moment. It reminds me so much of the AOL Chat rooms if you are old enough. Those rooms were filled with juveniles with innane thoughts and conversation threads. What is the fascination with this? Are we so attention starved? Do we all just need to get a REAL life?

More people have more ways to contact you FAST with quantities of information now but suffer greatly when it comes to quality of communication and depth of relationship. A phone call or face to face meeting is far richer for your life.

I hold out hope for Twitter and that is why I said (Yet) in my title because if there is a positive it is that online social networking leads to offline relationship development. I think the strong proponents would at least agree with me on that. But see that fishing pole up against the wall over there. Pretty low tech. But an invaluable tool to helping you spend some time with a son or daughter or a good friend on a Saturday afternoon on the lake or at the beach. Maybe you may really feel good slinging that Smartphone into the water while you're at it. I so do not want or need to know why you are having a bad day with the long lines at WalMart while you are picking up a can of peas for dinner.

You won't find this Cowboy on Twitter (yet) but I'll invite you out on my boat any day of the week. It's just who I am. And when you catch the big fish of the day you will figure out there's so much more to life than Twitter. Personally, I will bask in looking into your eyes and seeing that big smile of yours.