Twitter… You’re Ruining My Blog
I haven’t been writing lately. Actually, let me take that back. I have been writing… but in snippets of 140 characters.
Twitter is like virtual nicotine. I love connecting with others and having those short conversations. But too much Twitter definitely can be a bad thing…
Since I’ve been keeping up with everyone on Twitter, I’ve spent less time keeping up with blogs. I haven’t left a comment on a blog in a few weeks. I haven’t been reading as much… which means I haven’t been learning as much. Damn you, Twitter.
On the other hand, I’ve built more relationships, kept up with breaking news, and found a cool website (that has managed to waste more of my time than Twitter.)
So now it’s back to the basics. I’ve cleaned up Google Reader. I’ve started subscribing to new feeds again. And am spending more time writing posts.
Twitter is an amazing tool… if you use it right. Obviously, I’m still learning.
Any tips to stop Twitter from taking over your life?
(Feel free to message me on Twitter. I’m probably waiting for one.)
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I took a break from all social media last week, mostly because I had final exams. It seemed to break me from the habit. Maybe give yourself some mandatory “time outs”?
I take weekends off and set certain times during the weekday that I will twitter/check facebook…etc. TweetDeck can make it very tempting to tweet all day.
I actually find TweetDeck helps me save time. I set up a group of those that I consider BEST Tweeps (yes Drish, you are on the list
, then turn off notifications for all tweets and remove the all tweets column. That way, I see the tweets of those that I find most important, my replies, DMs, and Twitscoop. If I find myself with extra time to waste, I’ll pull up the all tweets column and read through those at that point. Of course, I always use a RSS feed of search.twitter.com to find my handle (@Kenny), that way if someone says something referencing me, but not in a reply, then I get pinged too.
Haha…virtual nicotine. So true. My friends who are new to twitter aren’t addicted yet so they don’t get why I have so many twitter updates every day. Haha…
It’s true, I’ve written more via Twitter than elsewhere in the past thirty days. You know what, that’s not a bad thing. More had happened in the non virtual world because of the Tweets I follow and those that I write. But I will say it is time for me to update a longer text blog out there.
@Milena & Nicole – Great… I think I need to limit my time on there. It’s always refreshing to take a break from all things technology related.
@Kenny – Dude. I just realized that not all of the @ replies showed up… Thanks for the “search rss” tip. Brilliant!
@Nisha – My friends are the same… I linked my Facebook w/ Twitter and I’m constantly getting wall posts saying, “What is this twitting thing that you do all day?”
BTW – Nisha wrote an amazing post for Brazen and won a free ticket to SXSW. Check her post out: http://nishachittal.wordpress.com/2008/12/12/forget-careers-blogging-changes-lives/
@John – It is definitely time for you to build a (non video) blog!
With your radio shows, I bet you’ve got a ton of content to share…
Thanks for the help everyone.
BTW, that fantastic contraptions website kept me busy from 1-3am last night. That site is a blast.
Twitter is an interesting tool which I’m still feeling out. Kenny’s process is the same one I’m using, but I still tend to spend too much time surfing Twitter.
But I enjoy being connected/informed and being linked into Twitter is great for that. The sword cuts both ways I guess.
@eschapp – LOL Isn’t that site great? Very addictive… Probably worse than Twitter itself.
Haha! I’ve drafted versions of this post myself about 20 times and then gotten distracted by Twitter.
I think there’s a balance to strike. But getting there is mostly about discipline and then defining for yourself what it is you want to do.
Also, how do you avoid Twitter stealing the conversation from your blog? Can be a challenge as well.
@Tiffany – Sometimes Twitter can help the conversation at a blog. This topic, for instance. People came to my blog because of twitter.
But more often than not, I’m on twitter instead of surfing blogs.