Leah Reads and Reads and Tweets.

I despise the word 'tweet.' I told Anthony last night that I had seen a 'tweet on Twitter, and then I retweeted it,' and it made me throw-up a little in my mouth. See, I'm not a huge fan of Twitter. I tried it a few years ago when I got my first smart phone, and although it was fun for a while, it got overwhelming -- I also had a few friends that overused Twitter. I don't need minute by minute updates on Big Brother. FERNANDO. I stopped using it completely after 5 or 6 months.
Earlier this summer, I took an online graduate class through my undergrad (it was painful, but I won't go into it here so I don't piss anyone too important off) about technology and education. You might have seen the Reading Survey from my last post -- feel free to continue to answer the questions! -- which was an assignment for my class. I took away some valuable knowledge of online tools and social networking, but much of it was overwhelming and confusing, even though I don't think of myself as too out of touch.
In class, I had to start a Twitter account; rather than reopen my previous account, I started a new one which I figured I'd link to this blog once class was over. I used it just enough to meet the class requirements, but since the class has been over, I've been trying to update every so often. I'm not sure if it's a good idea to have a Twitter linked to my blog, especially when many of my Tweets have to do with me watching Trash-TV, but I'm attempting to follow those in publishing and literary fields, as well as post relevant news articles and information. The thing that makes me crazy, though, is the 140 character limit.
As someone who values writing, I looked into teaching tools revolving around Twitter. One, from Kelley Gallagher's book Write Like This, has students writing 140 character memoirs, similar to the 6 word memoir contest inspired by Hemingway's 6 word short-story:

Mr. Hemingway

For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn. 

Brilliant, right? I love Hemingway. I know, I mention that anytime I have the chance -- I spent about an hour last night telling one of Anthony's friends about how much I love Hemingway -- but I really do. I appreciate his brevity. Faulkner (love him, too) once commented that Hemingway "has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." Hemingway, true to form, shot back "Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?"
It's true, though. In a digital text world where everyone has the opportunity to self-publish, what kind of writing becomes significant? What kind of writing becomes the standard, the most accessible, the most convenient? As a teacher -- and as a writing tutor in college -- there's little more frustrating that a student who has clearly shift-F7ed a word (for you Mac users, that opens the thesaurus) and has no idea what the new word actually means, because, hey! It's a big word, it must be good!
Although Twitter makes standard grammar and usage rules less desirable due to the shortened character limit, does it provide a useful writing tool for students? In forcing the author to be concise and to the point, is the 'main idea' a more relevant teaching and writing tool? I think Twitter can help us pay attention to the important details. Hemingway's story is 6 word, but it has a beginning, a middle, and an ending. Readers have the basic plot. Does it matter what color shoes? No, because that's not the point to the story.

From Ordeal by Cheque

As a personal experience, rereading Tweets can be an interesting take on a life story. I'd be interested to read, as a form of memoir, Twitter posts over the course of one year. I've used a great non-traditional short story, Ordeal by Cheque, at the start of certain English classes. It's a story told by checks written over the course of several years. Readers must make inferences to get the full story by paying attention to important details; what's being purchased, the amounts, the date, the handwriting, the name, and other important information. Much like social networking, where people often post passive-aggressive messages, can't we 'read' that information, also?
As I forge into the Twitter world, I want to think about the idea of social media memoir -- how our posts, tweets, status updates, and other various forms of updating and communicating that takes place over a full day -- reflects our life story. So follow me on Twitter! I'm still not sure what I'm doing, or how I can really make it a Leah Read's Twitter, but I love seeing how other people are using the website to write their lives.

Follow me: @LeahIsReading