The Twitter in Repose

For those who were wondering, given the date: no, really, I am on Twitter now. You can find me under the_real_tyler (seriously, the number of people on Twitter named Tyler Hayes is really kind of absurd). A link to the feed will be forthcoming when I have the time for a site update.

Having been on Twitter just under a week, I have a few observations about the process:

• Twitter is a fascinating medium to work in—the character limitation has been analyzed to death, but I really do find that it both forces a different style of writing than the larger and more robust blog format, and also provides a forum in which to relay those events that might not be worth an entry in a normal blog. I try to think of my Twitter feed as a museum of the strange and hilarious in my life, instead of a series of dissertations on same.


• The signal-to-noise ratio really is as terrible as Internet commentators claim. Even the feeds I really enjoy have a tendency to broadcast minutiae that probably wouldn't have made it to the Internet in any other medium.


• This is not the fault of the tweeters themselves, at least not entirely; there is something about Twitter as a medium that encourages one to tweet about trivial events unworthy of a normal blog. I think an inability to post everything at once and the unconscious (and unintended) fact that those who do not tweet get their tweets buried mean that people will do whatever they can to try to fill the gap.

So, there you have it. I'm tweeting now. Will wonders never cease. Feel free to follow my feed if you like; the only thing official and writing-related to take place over there will be announcements of Not Providence updates, though, so don't feel as though you are obligated. And please listen to this, my solemn promise that I will never subject those of you who choose to avoid Twitter to LoudTwitter or its sister programs--I firmly believe that the nature of a Twitter feed means it should be entirely opt-in, and LoudTwitter circumvents that.

And again, in case you thought that was also an April Fool's joke: screw MySpace.