Twitter: Messages For Self

As a professed Facebooker, I never really 'got' Twitter. I mean, it was there, but then again it was not there. Before this class I had or should I say still have a twitter account which has seen less action than a Hugh Heffner sans Viagra. Updating one's status or tweeting on a continuous basis was tiring to me. However, the thrill arrived when checking my friends’ tweets. I am the ultimate fascinated observer --the ultimate.

There were many tweets about midterms, socializing (and lack of) as well as emotions. Stellar time was most evident throughout my Twitter experience in that there were so many similar scenarios especially with regard to school work and the emotion and action it evoked (mainly stress and procrastination).

I also noticed that there were a lot of abbreviations for certain words. The word ‘really’ translated to ‘rlly’ and of course LOL for laugh out loud. Use of ‘emotion’ symbols was also quite frequently eg. J,L and =(

Twitter and other social networking media can be used for networking and socializing, but it can also be used simply as a venting hub. I have been guilty of even creating my own little cryptic status updates on both Facebook and Twitter, with the aim simply venting ‘aloud’ without having anyone really ‘hear’ me. Trust me it works.

For example, LMFAO usually translates to Laughing My Fat Ass Off while I can create something like TJRFS meaning This Job Really F@&*in Sucks and no one will know what I mean unless I divulge. Or simply putting ‘________________’ meaning that I’m unsatisfied with something and the topic is dead to me -- thus the flat line. If asked and I don’t want to get into specifics, I can always change the meaning according to who is going to interpret it. I can cuss a Cat in a Hat if I wanted to and not feel ashamed because I know what I mean even if you don't.

Borges’ text illustrated the interpretation of messages when sent from one person to the next. Like life in today’s social networking frenzy, one may create a message geared towards a certain individual or group of individuals. The message intended for one may not mean the same to person that it’s not intended for. Interpretation by the reader (whether it be the intended person or not) may usually conjure different meanings unless universally understood symbols.

At the end of it all, Twitter for me was a hub for expressing oneself freely -- judgement included. It was and may continue to be Messages for the Interested by the Intrested (thus the title Messages For Self).