By Amy Van Veen (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: January 16, 2013
I tweet.
I’m not sure if that’s something I should be ashamed of or not because I know the voices of the Twitter naysayers. I know them well. I was one.
Twitter? Isn’t that just a lesser Facebook where people essentially stalk celebrities’ photos about sandwiches? Don’t people just say stupid stuff like, “Just got a coffee. #lol #yolo”? Granted, there are a lot of foolish Twitter users out there and there are a lot of mundane posts, but there are also a lot of great ones.
I joined Twitter because of two contributing factors: firstly, the peer pressure from working at a student newspaper got to me, and secondly, I wanted to read comedian Demetri Martin’s (@DemetriMartin) daily snippets of awesome.
That was back in November 2011, and the following January I got to test my Twitter skills at the 74th Annual Canadian University Press (CUP) National Conference, or in Twitter-speak, #NASH74. I was wary, at first, immediately doubting the cleverness of a joke as soon as I hit “tweet.” It was vulnerable and terrifying, until I realized it was a lot like going to the gym. You think everyone’s going to be watching, but no one really does. As soon as you realize that, you have the freedom to do your own thing. For some this may mean talking about that wicked Frappuccino, for others it may be talking about how hungover they are, but for me and #NASH74, it was about participating in a notable norovirus outbreak at a national student conference in Victoria.
Over the last year I got to use Twitter to share my inane musings, tell my measly number of followers every time something in life reminded me of something from 30 Rock and live-tweet viewings of movies such as Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Elf.
And then around comes January and this year’s 75th Annual CUP National Conference was held in Toronto. Thankfully no live coverage of a viral outbreak was recorded, but I was given the opportunity to try something new – note-taking via Twitter.
With that handy #NASH75 in every tweet, I was able to spread the news about what I was learning at different seminars. As journalist and founder of Regret the Error blog Craig Silverman talked about how journalists can best decipher the truth from the lies in his “BS Detection” seminar, I tweeted his tips and tricks. As Esquire’s writer-at-large Chris Jones talked about his interview process for larger pieces such as “Things That Carried Him”—a story about the process of bringing one soldier’s body back to the U.S.—I tweeted for those not attending the standing-room-only session. As everyone got ready for the final gala and awards show, I sat in my pajamas and quoted Community’s Halloween zombie outbreak episode thanks to the little blue bird.
Thanks to Twitter, people were able to attend as many sessions as they desired. Two speakers in one time block? No problem, Twitter’s got it. That person you networked with but forgot the name of? Twitter can help. Want to participate in an awards show but stay in your pajamas? Twitter’s there for you.
I tweet.
And it’s pretty awesome.
