Twitter: Hot or not?
THE Feminist Mentor is my friend on Twitter.
Well, I’m not sure if it was really Dr Thio Su Mien who acquired a Twitter account and added me during Aware’s impassioned, seven-hour extraordinary general meeting (EGM) at Suntec City on May 2.
But whoever helmed that account certainly showed her – or his – humorous side.
For the uninitiated, Twitter is an online service that allows a user to post short updates called ‘tweets’ under 140 characters in length onto a profile page and the pages of other users who ‘follow’ him. Call it the ‘SMS of the Internet’, if you will.
‘Feministmentor’ kept the hundreds of Singaporeans and foreigners who followed the events in real time outside the venue, and even outside of Singapore, entertained with tweets like:
‘Reminder: Parking at Suntec City is $1.07 per hour.’
‘We haven’t taken out our secret weapon yet. I’m getting someone who just came back from Mexico to sneeze in the hall.’
‘I’m calling McDelivery. Anyone in Hall 402 want to share the delivery fee?’
Jokes and jibes aside though, Twitter is now the darling of new media exponents, including yours truly.
Traditional media not allowed into an event like Aware’s EGM until many hours later? With Twitter, anyone can be a wannabe reporter, armed only with a mobile phone with Internet access.
Not present at an important event?
Just follow other users who are tweeting as eyewitnesses.
Basic hygiene and meal times flew out the window as I stared transfixed at my laptop at home for more than six hours following the real-time Aware feed, as if it was a live soccer match.
Twitter, though, is not just for sharing news as soon as they break. It’s an entire lifestyle condensed into bite-size chunks.
Got a witty or contemplative thought? Tweet it and entertain your followers before it escapes your mind:
‘A shoe has been thrown at Wen Jiabao! We should take bets on which world leader will be next.’
‘The Arctic is thawing alarmingly and opening up fresh sea lanes. And all nations can do is to fight for exclusive economic zones?’
‘Solution to waking up on time for morning exams: Go to sleep so early it becomes biologically impossible to sleep beyond the beginning of exam time.’
‘Jack Neo! Are you watching the Aware EGM? The script for ‘Mentor No Enough’ is right before your very eyes.’
It’s unfair to dismiss Twitter merely as a repository for inane comments like: ‘I just took a dump’, ‘What should I have for dinner today?’, or ‘Bored. Very Bored.’
Like blogs, a Twitter feed’s value stems largely from the eloquence and expressiveness of its creator. Unlike blogs, Twitter thankfully doesn’t give over to massive bouts of verbal diarrhoea.
In the two years since I’ve started tweeting, I’ve learnt to be more careful with my choice of words in order to create the greatest impact or describe an event or feeling with the least words.
It helps when I am churning out newspaper articles or academic essays with strict word limits – sometimes less is more.
After all, isn’t brevity the soul of wit?
Eisen Teo, 24, is an honours student in history from NUS. Follow him at twitter.com/eisen.
Tags: Eisen Teo
You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.