Thing 5: Online Networks [Part 2]

Twitter

One of the main reasons for doing Rudaí was to get on Twitter. I had been meaning to sign up to Twitter a few months before Rudaí 23 started, to follow library events, but I had been putting it off on the long finger.

Originally Twitter only had a text box and no photo uploads, it was one of the platforms that was suggested to join when I entered college but it did not appeal to me at the time.

In the beginning I still found it difficult to write in a causal and concise manner. This is why I was both terrified and excited about Twitter. Now I am confident enough to Tweet and can keep up with twitter chats, to a certain extent.

I signed up to Twitter a few hours before the Google hangout. I was in the middle of computer problems so I only got to complete the first two steps of the sing up process before my browser crashed.

Twitters data capturing capacity is a little worrisome. I had only entered my name, email address and preferred handle in the sign up process and when I signed in after restarting my browser it suggested my brother and some of my college friends to follow.

Normally when signing up for new social media platforms it will give you the option to select or invite friends from your email or Facebook account but to do this a permission request normally runs and asks for password confirmation. Twitter seems to have skipped this step and to have automatically completed the last few steps in the sign up itself, handy but a bit unnerving.

Years ago I had browser crashes before when signing up to platforms but usually when you re-enter the platform there are either redirect to where you left off if it was an essential part of the sign up or prompts on the site where to go to complete the missed steps.

Tweeting was not as bad as I had feared. After a few posts and re-tweets I became comfortable with the platform.

I Tweeted from a conference for the first time when I was at the “Right to Read” conference. I found this a bit difficult because I was not able to type fast enough, so I took notes and typed the tweets in between speakers.(#right_to_read)

It turns out I like Twitter chats but I get lost about half way through an hour session and feel like I am playing catch up with the questions in the second half.

I participated in a chat run by Rudai (#Rudai23) and one run by the SLA (#slatalk). I followed the (#interlibnet) Twitter chat while waiting for the SLA talk to start. I look forward to getting involved in more chats in the future.

I subscribed to several lists but haven’t had the time to explore and utilise them. I look forward to revisiting lists sometime in the future and maybe creating some of my own.

Part 5: 23 Things Course Rudaí 23.
Tasks Facebook: Join Rudai23 Facebook group and say hi, follow a Facebook page that you like
Tasks Twitter: Set up Twitter account, follow @rudai23, tweet with #rudai23, subscribe to a list. #thing5