How public are you about your private life in tweets, Facebook, blogs, wikis, email, phone, snail mail, articles, books, presentations, interviews? Very few of us will have our life and vocation examined by Congress, but none-the-less have you considered …
- What your wider circle of acquaintances (or even the larger public) know about your daily life?
- How they came to know what they know? Note: maybe you’ve chosen to avoid social media, post anonymously, or post under a pseudonym.
- Whether the communication about your life reflects Christ-likeness in mood, word, action?
These questions came to mind when reading The Mood Is the Message (Scott McLemee. Inside Higher Ed. 6/30/2010), a Intellectual Affairs piece on the Library of Congress’ archiving of Twitter files. Yes, that means the emerging discipline of Twitter Studies 😉
Before giving a thumbnail account of some of this work – which, as the bibliography I’ve consulted suggests, seems intrinsically interdisciplinary – it may be worth pointing out something mildly paradoxical: the very qualities that make Twitter seem unworthy of study are precisely what render it potentially quite interesting. The spontaneity and impulsiveness of expression it encourages, and the fact that millions of people use it to communicate in ways that often blur the distinction between public and private space, mean that Twitter has generated an almost real-time documentary record of ordinary existence over the past four years — Scott McLemee. The Mood Is the Message. Inside Higher Ed. 6/30/2010.
Out of curiosity, let us know what you think …
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PS. Please pass the poll along to all your friends on Twitter 😉
PPS. I must confess that I still have not joined the ranks of Twitter. Some conversation from over a year ago at Who Do You Follow on Twitter?
Tom enjoys daily conversations regarding living out the Biblical Story with his wife Theresa and their four girls, around the block, at Elizabethtown Brethren in Christ Church (where he teaches adult electives and co-leads a small group), among healthcare professionals as the Northeast Regional Director for the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA), and in higher ed as a volunteer with the Emerging Scholars Network (ESN). For a number of years, the Christian Medical Society / CMDA at Penn State College of Medicine was the hub of his ministry with CMDA. Note: Tom served with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA for 20+ years, including 6+ years as the Associate Director of ESN. He has written for the ESN blog from its launch in August 2008. He has studied Biology (B.S.), Higher Education (M.A.), Spiritual Direction (Certificate), Spiritual Formation (M.A.R.), Ministry to Emerging Generations (D.Min.). To God be the glory!