Now Twittering on (Digital) Tech and the Humanities

I’m now on Twitter, folks! Follow me there for what will be undoubtedly far more posts than you can find here. My aim for the account is to collect and disperse information pertaining to intersections between (digital) technology and the humanities.

[I'm putting "digital" in parentheses because I don't want to limit myself to digital technology only. I don't want to exclude "digital humanities" either, however, and that seems to have currency as a catch-all term these days.]

As my friend @Gnat74 put it (and I couldn’t agree more): “Twitter is the most useful social media device I’ve come across yet. Sure you can tweet that you just ate a weird apple or something like that, but most people I follow are just about exchanging useful information. I’ve found the best content on the web through my Twitter ‘friends.’ [...] I think the succinctness of Twitter posts enhances the opportunity for effective suggestive keyword placement in tweets by marketers. Also Twitter and other social networking applications are trance-inducing. I think it has to do with the mental mapping we do when we’re on sites like Facebook and Twitter. When we’re on these sites — it IS the real world we’ve mapped out in our brains with these friends and connections.”

Incidentally, Natalie’s comments are excerpted from a discussion about Twitter that took place on my Facebook page! The discussion was prompted by a tweet which was was pushed to FB, thus becoming my status there (I have since unlinked my Twitter account from FB):

I wholeheartedly disagree with the article referenced in my status as pictured above. I think that pretty nigh any behavior can “stem from a lack of identity,” and I don’t think that Twitter particularly encourages such behavior. I also think that it’s difficult to know the usefulness of Twitter unless you actually actively use it, as this counter-post points out.