From the Library: It’s all in the delivery

“Everyone’s doing it!” I’d been told. And so, a year or so ago I decided it was time to tweet and I signed up for an account on Twitter.com. Librarians had actually been hearing about Twitter since its arrival on the social media scene in 2006. Those of us who try very hard to keep up with technology had been warned that we’d be left behind and so we hurried to catch up.

I’ve never been one to jump on the Technology Bandwagon ahead of the gang and I must admit I was slow to react to the Twitter news.

I spend a good deal of time on the Internet. I read much of my news there and I subscribe to feeds and blogs. I recently found that texting seems appropriate when I need to send a quick update to a family member and I don’t want to bother them with a ringing phone. Many of us keep our ringers off but our phones on and handy. I caught on late but I now always text all of our grown kids when we’re readying to take off on a runway or when we’ve finally landed on the tarmac. They know we’re safe and I haven’t had to bother them with details one by one. Colleagues and friends had told me that much of Twittering is done like texting. Texting makes great sense to me and I thought that perhaps I wasn’t giving Twitter a chance.

So did I get cozy with Twitter? Nope. I quickly found out that I didn’t have time to “follow” my twittering, tweeting friends and I sincerely doubted that I could to keep them interested in “following me.” I abandoned the site after a visit or two a year ago. Why the heck would I want to keep up with the world’s daily or hourly activities, thoughts, happenings or opinions? And who would want to keep up with mine?

When Twitter became a real sensation in June after the Iranian election we heard much of the real news and street talk due to Twitter. And while CNN correspondents and Larry King had Twitter accounts before this incredible ‘happening,’ everyone seemed to catch the Twitter frenzy. Even our local news teams were tweeting along with millions of new users. Have I missed something, I asked? I revisited my Twitter page. Sad to say, I just didn’t get it a year ago and I still don’t.

Twitter’s claim on its homepage is that you can “share and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world.” My problem with Twitter is that the world is a very big place. I can’t possibly keep up with all my email, my Google Reader aggregator and my online feeds, my Facebook family and friends. How can I possible discover and share with the rest of the world in constant 140-character Tweets? Why do I have to know these things?

Recent studies of this phenomenon called Twitter have found that millions of others haven’t caught on either. Recent studies (on the Internet and in print media) claim that Tweeters flock to the site and then never return. Around 60 percent of those who register are just not staying around to “get it.” Some predictions claim that only 10 percent of all Internet users are really using Twitter.

 Clay Shirky, a “prescient voice on the Internet’s effect on the world,” claims that Twitter and other emerging technologies “will change the way our society works.” Certainly, the Internet has changed the way we work, live, and learn. It has changed our society. At a recent meeting, one committee member told us how his recently graduated son recently got an exciting first job using Twitter. He followed all of his favorite college coaches on Twitter and found out before everyone else that an amazing and coveted internship was available. A true Twitter success story and one that worked well for a Tweeting follower.

As librarians we are taught to discern the real news and credible information on the Internet; we have learned to cull the best from all the millions of megabytes that charge into our lives each day across our screens. The important message we take away is that where one of us may find relevance, immediacy and convenience, another finds redundancy, nuisance, and fluff. That’s the beauty of technology and the Internet as we take it or leave it, Tweet it or not.

Visit our Web site, www. norwoodlibrary.org or call 781-769-0200. We look forward to seeing you in the library.