Joining Twitter

Trying to think – not for the first time, mind you – what I would use Twitter for.

I don’t care to share the tidbits of my life as they happen. Maybe, I did care a bit more during the years in England, but even then, I do not see myself stopping for a second to compose a 140-char blob about what I might have been doing or seeing. Writing a marginally thoughtful blog entry after a period of reflection kinda feels more worthwhile. Or, in the past tense, felt.

I rarely have thoughts or insights that I feel need to be broadcast to the world. I carry the label of “being opinionated” everywhere I go, but I tend to be reactive rather than proactive when it comes to sharing opinions. Ask me a question – you’ll get a full-blown answer. Otherwise, I am good with keeping my opinions to myself.

I don’t particularly care to know what my friends are doing at any specific period of time. I cherish our friendships and our close relationship, I do, you know that, but please forgive me if I’d rather learn what you thought or saw when we talk face to face next time. I am a very infrequent visitor to Facebook, as a matter of fact. Staying connected with long-distance friends is much easier online, no doubt, but I am struggling with the minute information overload that comes with that. Maybe, I just have a different view of our level of closeness, my apologies for that.

I am perfectly fine with becoming aware of important news some time after they happen, not the very moment they do. And I am quite indifferent to people’s reactions to assorted events. I can get my fill of interpretative opinions via any number of op-ed pieces out there on the web.

Nor do I have any interest in keeping up with various celebrities’ doings and goings. I am just not into that kind of information consumption. There’s not enough time in the day for me to consume the information that I do find important, to start with.

I thought that, maybe, by following certain publications I could get alerted to some of the stuff that I do want to read. However, I quickly realized that the info stream includes large percentage of stuff that I do not care about, which means that perusing my Twitter timeline is entirely a duplication of flipping through my existing RSS aggregation.

So, what did I get a Twitter account for? I honestly don’t know. Everybody seems to have one, it does not cost anything, so here we are. Can’t think of a meaningful tweet, can’t come up with whom to follow, but I’ve joined nonetheless.

I realize that some pieces of my meager blogging output could have been presented as micro-blogging notices. But as I find it challenging to work up enthusiasm for blogging, so I find it equally unappealing to convert to tweeting. Otherwise, I could have made my inaugural tweet something like: “Sciatica is a pain in the ass, literally so. Treated with steroids, no less!” Hey, on the bright side, the world has been spared that insight, beyond the few of you in the audience.

If anyone here thinks they would enjoy hearing about the vagaries of my daily commute and other stuff that crosses my mind, I’m willing to give it a try. Let me know. Start following @IlyaBurlak. You got little to lose, if my blogging history is anything to go by.