Tweets and Other Forms of Written Communication

I just "found" a great link on Twitter... from an educational "tweeter" that I follow. It's on Laura Walker's blog and it's called "Nine great reasons why teachers should use Twitter." My favorite line is a quote from someone Walker follows: "Following smart people on Twitter is like a mental shot of expresso [sic]." How fabulous it is to learn what interesting people are doing around the world at any given moment! Subtract the minutiae of an everyday life and sift the gold nuggets that can potentially enrich you, professionally and personally.

A friend tweeted her "Twitter profile's worth" which was several hundred dollars. I think mine is less than $10. Could be that I spend much more time reading tweets than writing them. Could also be that I follow fewer people than she does, and, consequently, fewer follow me back. I don't think I have more time (than writing this paragraph) to ponder my lack of Twitter worth. But I'm sure it will nag at me deep in the recesses of my mind...

So, is email dead? I don't really think so. It's so much more satisfying than a text message because you're allowed (perhaps expected) to use proper spelling and grammar and complete sentences. Yet, IMing, Tweeting, text messaging from a phone -- all of these do teach a person to be more concise and get to the point. Guess I'll cut this post short, then. One more advantage an email or hand written note has over shorter forms of communication is that there's room to express some emotion, to explain your feelings and thoughts. Try that in a 140 character Tweet!

Last item concerns the invention of what sounds like new vocabulary. I'm not too fond of some "new" words. Here are a couple:
1. Incentivize. The online Merrian-Webster dictionary does have a definition so maybe this one's not even new. But why can't you just say "create an incentive?"
2. Strategery. This word supposedly began with its usage on a Saturday Night Live sketch in 2000. It was a mockery of our former president's misuse of language. And, it sounds like it too. So I bristle when someone on the radio uses this word as a legitimate noun in weighty discussions of policy and politics. First use: funny. Continued use: not so much.

Looking for you on Twitter!