twitter | Social Signal

Turns out it really is better to give than receive! We just handed Julie Ovenell-Carter, a.k.a. @sfuwoodwards, her brand new Flip MinoHD video camera, her prize in Social Signal's first Twitter contest.

Friend and SoSi advisor Leda Dederich asked for my thoughts on Virginia Heffernan's New York Times Magazine article last week, Let them eat Tweets. Heffernan riffs on Bruce Sterling's recent SXSW keynote, and writes:

I have only lately begun to wonder whether I’d use Twitter if I were fully at liberty to do what I liked. In other words, I’m not sure I’d use Twitter if I were rich. Swampy, boggy, inescapable connectivity: it seems my middle-class existence has stuck me here.

Heffernan is just about my favourite writer on tech culture, and while I can't concur with her subjective experience -- my fantasies of wealth involve having more time to spend online, not less -- her article prompted me to think about how much of my Twitter use is compulsive, rather than fulfilling.

Whether you're an ambivalent Twitter newbie or a chronic tweeter in the throes of a growing addiction, your tweeting is going to take time that you're currently using for something else. Even if you're following our guide to effective tweeting in 5 minutes a week, those five minutes have to come from somewhere. So here are my suggestions for activities you can pare back on -- or give up entirely -- to make room for tweeting.