Mere days ago, I was approached at work by two former students. I’ll call one Karim, although that’s not his real name. At the end of this post, you’ll understand why I don’t give his real name. He’ll still know I’m referring to him when he reads this.

 

Karim is very bright and engaged, has a few undergrad degrees under his belt and is finishing a Masters degree from a UK university, is highly skilled in IT, and has a wicked sense of humour. When he touched on a familiar topic, I told him I would send him a link to a post I wrote a few weeks ago in this blog, simply to show him I agreed with him as demonstrated by my writing about it. That’s when the mockery commenced.

 

Karim smiled, “What’s a blog?” His friend raised an eyebrow in agreement. He followed up with, “What’s a blog? I don’t speak ancient.” It was still funny no matter that I was the target.

 

Admittedly, I am somewhat maladroit at IT. If you’re not familiar with the term you can Google it – no need to flip through a dictionary, whatever that is.  I’m only starting to get into social media, mostly to link up with this site. Exhibit A of for me being IT inept: I said to them, “Hey, not every point can be made in under 144 characters.”

 

“It’s 140 characters”, I was quickly corrected. I know, I’m hideous.

 

I have no issue with social media, Twitter included. According to Twitter, all but one of the of the top six people, in terms of who has the most followers, is a musical entertainer; Barack Obama is in third place. Entertainment and quick bits have their place in society, albeit not everywhere all the time. Moreover, Twitter allows users to attach links, which could be a pic of someone’s belly button or a lengthy article or video or anything else on the Internet. So, although Twitter posts are necessarily short on content, tweeters can draw some followers into all sorts of detailed content if they choose to.

 

I thought I’d give it a try, making point or two in less than 140 characters. Pushing myself toward brevity can’t hurt. I’ve noticed that some people launch multiple tweets to get a point across, folks like Donald Trump, for example. I’ll do that below. I’ll do three bits of < 140 characters. However, if I never again do anything Trump does, that’ll be OK. So here goes.

 

• Understanding requires details – words and/or #s. Sound bites sell & stick; are believed & repeated. Same with rumours, guesses, biases, BS. #QuickCan=BS

 

• Quick+easy CAN = fun. Can also = BS. Facts+understanding those DOES = truth. Truth rarely quick or easy. Over to you (OTY), folks. #QuickCan=BS

 

• BTW Karim is a good guy, often smart, always funny. This time, also a wanker. LOL. OTY K. #QuickCan=BS #KarimIsAWanker

 

Hey, I could get used to this tweeting thing.