{"id":1841,"date":"2012-09-14T09:10:11","date_gmt":"2012-09-14T08:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/?p=1841"},"modified":"2013-07-01T17:21:52","modified_gmt":"2013-07-01T16:21:52","slug":"tweet-your-heart-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/tweet-your-heart-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Tweet Your Heart Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Twitter is funny, kind of strange. \u00a0And trying to explain it to someone who has never used it is equally strange: \u2018 So, you write short passages of text, no more than 140 characters, about anything you want (you can add pictures too) and post it for mainly strangers to see.\u00a0 And people follow you so they can read what you write.\u00a0 You follow others so you can read what they write\u2019<\/em>. That\u2019s it. But, most people would ask simply, \u2018why?\u2019 And that\u2019s the question I\u2019ve been asking myself. Why do I, and millions of people (last count around 500 million) around the world, participate in this very peculiar social exchange?<\/p>\n

Twitter has grown out of the need for people to connect and communicate. It is becoming more popular than Facebook, that other social phenomena, but why is it more popular? \u00a0Perhaps it is because we are<\/strong> restricted to 140 characters and our exchanges are therefore more dynamic and spontaneous. But, I think it\u2019s more than that.<\/p>\n

On Facebook, we, in the main, have \u2018friends\u2019 who very often are not friends at all. On Twitter, we start with followers, who somehow can and do become friends.\u00a0 At least, that has been my experience.\u00a0 I think if you had told me this time last year that one of the first things I would do when I wake up is check my Twitter account I wouldn\u2019t have believed you. But that\u2019s what has happened.\u00a0 Because, there on Twitter are lives I\u2019ve become interested in and want to know more about.\u00a0 There, within something that may seem superficial and facile, I\u2019ve found people who communicate simply and openly. All ages; nationalities; ethnic groups, our differences are blurred as we share common hopes and dreams, sometimes our fears and doubts. But we\u2019ve never met, we may never meet except for the time spent in the multicultural Twitter village.<\/p>\n

The Twitter \u2018family\u2019 that I joined grew out of a common bond. We all follow and admire the same person (doesn\u2019t really matter who) but that has almost become secondary to why we stay in touch with each other.\u00a0 \u00a0If someone from the family doesn\u2019t tweet for a day we are concerned, if someone seems unhappy and down, we offer help and advice. \u00a0And we make each other laugh until we cry. In my book, that is a sort of family. \u00a0And I wonder, are these friendships any less than the friends and family we rarely see and hear from?\u00a0 The truth is, I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

On Twitter, not everyone is nice. If someone writes something we don\u2019t like, we can \u2018unfollow\u2019 or block them. Then we need never hear from them again. I think sometimes how simpler our lives would be if we could do this in \u2018real\u2019 life too.\u00a0 But, perhaps, this is why Twitter is so appealing.\u00a0 In that Twitter world we can control who and what we want to hear. And, in an ever increasingly chaotic life, we crave some order and control and a place to feel safe.\u00a0 Maybe we just want to edit out what gives us pain.<\/p>\n

But, there is another element to Twitter and perhaps it\u2019s the basis of Twitter\u2019s real popularity.\u00a0 It\u2019s the overlap, or even reinforcement of the 21st<\/sup> century\u2019s obsession with celebrity.\u00a0 There is a whole section of Twitter that has been taken over by music and film stars, \u2018wanna be\u2019 stars, journalists, writers, entrepreneurs and businesses that use it as a platform to sell their brand.\u00a0 And, in return, they interact with \u2018ordinary\u2019 people.\u00a0 To follow a celebrity or someone in the public eye means that you can read what they are doing and thinking at any given time\u00a0and comment on that.\u00a0 To have a celebrity follower, in turn, bring with it enormous kudos in Twitter world.\u00a0 But one might ask why that matters, if indeed it does. \u00a0For me, this is one of the most interesting aspects of Twitter and its popularity and also one that makes me feel uneasy. Mainly because I\u2019m also caught up in that peculiar never-never land and I don\u2019t quite understand why.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if my fascination and love of Twitter will continue. One day, I will probably become bored with what it offers and stray back into real life.\u00a0 But, what of the friends I made there? What of the need to share and laugh about our common loves and fears? Will that be fulfilled elsewhere?\u00a0 I really don\u2019t know. But, until then, I\u2019ll enjoy what I\u2019ve found in cyber space.\u00a0 Why not?<\/p>\n

About the author<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0 <\/em>Margaret lives in Scotland and has been trying to understand and practise\u00a0 Dharma for about forty years. She has been a student of Ringu Tulku since 1993<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Twitter is funny, kind of strange. \u00a0And trying to explain it to someone who has never used it is equally strange: \u2018 So, you write short passages of text, no more than 140 characters, about anything you want (you can add pictures too) and post it for mainly strangers to see.\u00a0 And people follow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTweet Your Heart Out - Many Roads<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/tweet-your-heart-out\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/tweet-your-heart-out\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/tweet-your-heart-out\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Tweet Your Heart Out\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-09-14T08:10:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-07-01T16:21:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/tweet-your-heart-out\/\"},\"wordCount\":811,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/tweet-your-heart-out\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/files\/2012\/09\/twitter-bird-light-bgs4-150x150.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Personal Stories\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/tweet-your-heart-out\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/tweet-your-heart-out\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/tweet-your-heart-out\/\",\"name\":\"Tweet Your Heart Out - 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