I love Twitter. I was resistant at first, because I thought the 140-character restriction was too limiting for any real conversation. After using it for a while, I grew accustomed to the 
short blurbs, and even grew to appreciate the fact that some crazy Tweeters can’t ramble on incessantly and have to follow the same rules as everyone else.
For a professional, Twitter is fabulous, because you can put your product out there to a large amount of readers. The limited length of messages actually helps you out, because people who use the Internet are rarely in the market for lengthy propaganda. Short and sweet is better.
As a mother, I have mixed feelings. I love that, thanks to the Twitterverse, I literally have friends from all different walks of life in countries all over the globe. Whenever I have a question, need to vent or am just in need of a chat-break, my pals on Twitter never disappoint.
Someone always has answers or can point me in the right direction towards fabulous resources, and there’s always a supportive ear or hilarious conversation waiting to be tapped.
Because I’m at my desk off and on all day and night in an effort to juggle family life and working from home, I see a lot of trends with other moms and their uses of Twitter. Some are like me. They work from home and are in and out throughout the day, check in, post blog links, chat for a few minutes and then move on. Others check in once or twice a day, message their friends, add their links and go about their days. Many of these women, in both categories, have their messages sent directly to their cellphones or an application like Tweetdeck, that alerts them immediately if someone’s trying to talk to them. It’s pretty much used as free text messaging and it’s very effective for both business and social use.
And then there are full-on twitter addicts. This is where my concern comes in. It’s the mamas you see who are constantly engaged in conversations, hopping from one tweet-friend to the next. Looking for someone to be talking to, about anything. Anything at all. Anything to not feel lonely. And seemingly, anything to avoid their real lives and families.
It makes me wonder if they have any connections in real-life? Where are their friends? Their support? What in the world are their children doing? Do they have interests and goals that are going untouched?
Twitter-reliant mamas, step away from the computer. Twitter is great. Social-networking is wonderful for a laundry list of reasons. BUT, it can’t be your only connection to the world. It’s not a solution to the mundane, stressful or scary. Get out there. Meet people. Take your kids to the park and meet other moms there. Moms that can support you when you need it, hugs and all. Chase your dreams. Chase your children. Don’t hide from your lives behind your keyboards. The Twitterverse is big, but the world is bigger. And it’s waiting for you and your families to make your marks together.
Image Source: flickr.com/photos/notionscapital/4861741285
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