On the other hand, my reaction to twitter is to heed Noam Chomsky in “Manufacturing Consent”. People are trained to hear soundbytes, and to define the world in those terms. I wonder if putting twitter out there makes it easier for folks to get their sense of Joe from two second messages, and thus harder to believe anything longer.

It’s all a question of which tools serve your goals. These are all tools for the toolbox. It’s enough that they’re in there. You don’t pull out your whole screwdriver set every time you hammer a nail, do you?

I’m grateful for tools like twitter, and I have them when the need arises. I’m grateful for tools like my blog, and I’m using them right now. I’m grateful for Noam Chomsky, too! That fella knows a thing about psychology and the media, and I’ve learned a lot from him!

I love you, Joe. Thanks for posting! Anytme you want to come by, I’m writing my media musings on http://tenny.8sidedfilms.com.

Best Always, T

I have to admit, I haven’t gotten the bug for a number of these trends, although, twitter is beginning to seem more interesting to me.

A couple that I have found particularly useful are
LinkedIn ~ This is a more professional social networking venue, and I have found it to be a great way to find contacts, and also to easily provide praise to people I feel have done a real good job in helping me out with stuff. Plaxo is related too, and some people like it more. I’ve noticed that a number of people I know on LinkedIn are also on Plaxo.

Another really useful tool, is Jott.com, which allows you to call in “Jotts” and send them to just about anything, twitter, remember the milk, google calendar, blogspot, etc…

It only gets about 30 seconds at a time, but I believe that they are working to have paid services that might allow for more talk time, etc. The speech to text that they have works really well.

I joined one “mom” social site and have commented, given suggestions for over several months now and can see no purpose in it since I can’t advertise. I have to be sneaky about giving out my site information. Chit-chat and meaningless gossip doesn’t interest me. But I’m willing to pug along to see if it really works. Test…Test…Test… Network…Network…Network as my mentor says.

I sometimes wonder if family and face to face friends aren’t being neglected by spending so much time on social sites. I recently noticed 4 girls in a restaurant booth all text messaging someone else. Great relationships right in front of their noses and they were chatting with one they couldn’t see.

Since the words “Virtual” means “Almost” I don’t relish having an “almost relationships with my friends, family and grandkids. Even blogs are lacking.. I wish I could meet the person face to face. Feeling another personal energy is much more powerful and rewarding. However, I do follow blogs that give useful and helpful information as well as have a personal twist.

I’m on Facebook but haven’t Twittered yet. But…. if it works business wise… I’ll willing to try it and out to see the results. Some of the above comments give me hope.

“Test..Test..Test.. Push the Rock…Push the Rock.”

Kathryn
Insightful Nana

However, as a marketing tool, I don’t see it as much more than just something like a blog. It lets others know what I’m up to, and that’s about it. I don’t see the value of trying to sell something to it. But it’s a great way to network! (And it’s a lot faster than Second Life, and more personal than Twitter.)

Carrie
http://www.thathealthyperson.com
*Help obliterate obesity! Visit obliterateobesity.com to find out how*

Above is the same problem I see with a lot of people Joe.

If you dig using these sites then cool. But i’ll pass. I’ve only got so many hours in a day. And my time is the most valuable tool I have. These sites mentioned above will only cut into it.

David