Oh Twitter, it brings back so many memories of lurking as a young kid. I had twitter back in the day, and remember just scrolling through what I called “dumb” tweets for something to do. Every now and then I would retweet something, but I mostly just had it because someone told me to get it. 

And I meet twitter again. This time, a purpose, EDCT 300. After learning about all the cool tools that twitter had, and the amazing PLN that can be created with twitter my mindset quickly changed. I knew it was no longer a site that had silly tweets (although I’m sure it still does), but something that could be used for educational purposes, to help grow and strength ones digital identity, and a place to share and collaborate. As I saw all the wonderful qualities I almost immediately got anxiety about it. It was a place where one could connect with SO many people and they could see EVERYTHING you tweet, retweet, like etc. As a person who has full private social media accounts and rarely posts this was something that made me very uncomfortable. 

I loved the idea of connecting, and seeing other people’s perspectives, but being more than simply a lurker freaked me right out.  I went on the app several times, and was instantly overwhelmed with everything going on. After re-watching the parts in the lectures where Katia talks about twitter I still felt like I was doing it wrong or like I was the wrong person to tweet.

Although I loved the idea of collaborating, posting in such a limited number of characters, to such a wide audience sounded like a recipe for disaster for me. All I could think about were the mis-interpretations that could happen, and the lack of clarity that could be given. Although I am sure this is something that happens so rarely the thought that I couldn’t explain my who thought /opinion, and only was able to share a small tidbit, deterred me from the site.

Twitter is definitely an aspect I will keep, and teach too. However it is a site I only feel comfortable lurking on for now, and that may change in the future as my identities strengthen.