Twitterin' on the horizon
You might have caught syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts Jr.'s vow in our Opinion page last week to never send you a tweet. I wish I can make that same promise but I'm afraid I can't.
Many people -- from Sen. John McCain using it to poke fun of the spending bill to our flagship paper the Daily News bringing breaking news in tiny url form -- are using the 140-character tweets as a way of communicating. When blogs first got popular, I never thought I would have my own. But now I'm often seen pounding away on my lap top in the back of city meetings. Someday, I'm sure, I'll be asked to tweet away.
For a person who works in communication, I'm not all that into communicating. I used to think that my aversion to social networking sites and Twitter came from a fear of technology but that's not so. I just really hate talking about what I'm doing and what I'm thinking. I am after all, Chinese born in the British colony of Hong Kong, which means my culture calls on me to be both reserved and have a stiff upper lip.
To piggy back on Pitts' sentiments, "I am not that interesting." Furthermore, Rancho City Council meetings, the source for most of my stories, aren't all that interesting either. The problem is the character constraint. At 140 characters, most of City Council actions would be reduced to boring ordinance numbers, such as:
City votes down res. #09-038, 4-1. Crowd cheers, applicant appeals.
Is there anybody out there who would like to get their news through Twitter? Comment here, please, don't send tweets.
Many people -- from Sen. John McCain using it to poke fun of the spending bill to our flagship paper the Daily News bringing breaking news in tiny url form -- are using the 140-character tweets as a way of communicating. When blogs first got popular, I never thought I would have my own. But now I'm often seen pounding away on my lap top in the back of city meetings. Someday, I'm sure, I'll be asked to tweet away.
For a person who works in communication, I'm not all that into communicating. I used to think that my aversion to social networking sites and Twitter came from a fear of technology but that's not so. I just really hate talking about what I'm doing and what I'm thinking. I am after all, Chinese born in the British colony of Hong Kong, which means my culture calls on me to be both reserved and have a stiff upper lip.
To piggy back on Pitts' sentiments, "I am not that interesting." Furthermore, Rancho City Council meetings, the source for most of my stories, aren't all that interesting either. The problem is the character constraint. At 140 characters, most of City Council actions would be reduced to boring ordinance numbers, such as:
City oks ordinance #810, first reading. Vote unanimous.
or
City votes down res. #09-038, 4-1. Crowd cheers, applicant appeals.
Is there anybody out there who would like to get their news through Twitter? Comment here, please, don't send tweets.
C'mon, there's possibilities for tweets about the unimportant stuff from council meetings:
"Did Rex really just say that?"
"John Lyons touches on fourth topic in his commentary, goes for fifth."
"Guy from the animal shelter is holding a cute puppy. Mayor Kurth pets it."
OK, maybe not.
"Met stalker reader. Seems nice at first. run away! run run away!"
:-D