Being a kid at heart, I try to keep up to date with a few comic strips that I enjoy. While they are no Calvin & Hobbes or The Far Side they do keep me laughing and remembering to not get too serious. In the past two weeks two of those cartoons, Doonesbury and Fox Trot, have sort of mocked or paid tribute to Twitter.
Additionally, listening to ESPN Radio on my drive to work I got to hear the hosts of Mike & Mike in the Morning talk about Twitter. I guess I should say they tried to talk about it since they had no idea what it was. People were sending in messages correcting them and helping them out a little bit. The hosts only reference was to Facebook and someone even sent in a message saying "Facebook is so 2008."
In the Doonesbury comic strip, the news journalist Roland Heley keeps updating his twitter status while he is suppose to be reporting a story. The entire week is spent following his thoughts and comments on twitter instead of him reporting the news. It was a complete mockery of what Twitter is and it exemplified how bad twitter can be and how out of control some people have gotten with updating everything that they are doing and every thought that they have (the Monday strip of Doonesbury has Roland tweeting 'about to scratch myself'). Shaquille O'Neal actually updated his status during halftime of one of his games, which seems a bit excessive.
While Doonesbury showed the excess of it, I liked how Fox Trot showed two things: how overuse can hinder you and how it can help you. The kids benefited because they could hide before the parent got to their room and the parent was hurt by it because she couldn't find the kids.
So needless to say, Twitter has not only arrived, but it has gotten so big that it is now being mocked/paid tribute to in the world of comic strips.
As far as communication and presentation goes regarding twitter, I just wanted to say this: make sure you use Twitter to your advantage instead of a hindrance. Don't get sidetracked like Roland Heley and tweet every single thought because you can, but use it like the kids in Fox Trot -- to your advantage. Use it to get a step up on the competition, keep informed on issues or other blogs and get your name out there. Or if anything else, know enough about it so you can understand the Sunday Cartoon strips.
Comments