I’m not new to the world on online networks and I know that many people have their own agenda when they are posting things. However, when I’ve come to rely on my PLN and, for the most part, trust them. Today I feel as though I have been deceived. I don’t think those involved were being malicious, but at the same time, they certainly weren’t forthcoming. I’m going to be as general as possible because I don’t know the intentions, but I certainly was disappointed and will remember this in the future.
I’ve been on Twitter for a few months now and have been fairly active in terms of my posts and trying to follow and actually keep up with everyone. I must say that I’m an addict now and have gotten so much out of it that, after struggling with the purpose that Tweets have in my life, I don’t see leaving. I came across a little advice that I thought would be worthwhile in my practice, however, upon further scrutiny, I found that the person from whom I’d gotten the advice had a great deal to gain from it. The advice was completely self-serving, which is fine, but I would have liked to know that up front. PLN’s are a great way to find resources and, to a certain extent, market yourself. I guess I was just disappointed. Does this fall under the realm of cyberethics? I’m not sure, but it did leave an impression on me, one I won’t soon forget.
A number of months ago I decided that I’d try out Twitter and see what I thought. I was immediately hooked. Suddenly, I was able to be connected to the thoughts of friends, acquaintances and others who I had been following for awhile, without having to wait for them to post a new blog entry. This was great, I joined some conversations and really gave twittering my all. While this experiment worked relatively well, I have two problems with Twitter.
- How can I keep up? I don’t really think I can. I’ve tried to be a part of the conversation… maybe I just don’t have as much to say as I think I should. But I just feel inundated with Tweets. I guess I feel as though it’s one more thing that is calling for my attention. Email is overwhelming… I’m not sure what the word might be for Twitter. There’s just so much great information out there that it could literally be the only thing I do.
- It’s blocked in my district. I haven’t really questioned this to this point, but my school laptop is my main computer and with Twitter being blocked there, it makes it hard to really jump in and actually give Twittering a chance. I can log in via my phone, which is fine… and I can check my feed via my Google Reader account, also fine. I guess it’s just problematic.
- I said two, but meant three. Finally, Twitter Spam sucks.
I want to be a Twitter-er, I just haven’t gotten there yet. I guess it’s time to try out a few clients and see if they can’t get around the blocks implemented by the district. Until then, I’ll just peruse my aggregator and keep up with thoughts from the fringe.
