AlterNet Megaphone: Why You Should Be on Twitter
Belief:
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Greta Christina
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace:
Labor Against the War Shifting Sights to Afghanistan Occupation
Jane Slaughter
DrugReporter:
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Jim Hightower
Environment:
20 Weird, Crazy Ideas for Helping the Earth
Food:
10 Tips for a Sustainable Thanksgiving
Sarah Newman
Health and Wellness:
Is the House's Health Bill Really Worse than Nothing?
Joshua Holland
Immigration:
What Denying Unauthorized Immigrants Health Insurance Will Cost You
Media and Technology:
The Memory Scrub About Why Ft. Hood Happened Is Almost Complete ... If It Weren't for Archives
Mark Ames
Movie Mix:
The Yes Men: Pranksters Out to Fix the World
Mark Engler
Politics:
Just When You Thought It Was Safe: 3 Potential Obstacles to Health-Care Reform
Adele M. Stan
Reproductive Justice and Gender:
Why Can't We Look Away From Sarah Palin?
Vanessa Richmond
Rights and Liberties:
Feeling Nervous? 3,000 Behavior Detection Officers Will Be Watching You at the Airport This Thanksgiving
Liliana Segura
Sex and Relationships:
Hot Mormon Muffins and Models for Jesus: What's With All the Sexy Christians?
Liz Langley
Take Action:
G-20 Meetings: Nothing Much Happened in the Suites, and There Was Too Much Punch in the Streets
Laura Flanders
Water:
Poseidon's Financial Shell Game: Why Is a Private Desalination Plant Asking for Public Money?
Peter Gleick
World:
Obama Will Announce 34,000-Troop Escalation in Afghanistan 'Within Days'
There's something silly about Twitter. The name is silly, and the concept seems even sillier. After all, how can we be expected to compress our brilliance into 140 characters or less?
But by this point, even the grouchiest naysayers have to admit that Twitter has evolved into an extremely useful and influential social networking and communication tool.
Twitter allows you to keep up with breaking news, or even get breaking information before it's in the news. It lets you keep in touch with friends and share thoughts, ideas and information.
Ultimately, as many, many proponents of the tool point out, it's not about how Ashton Kutcher, Oprah or Anderson Cooper choose to use Twitter; what matters is how you choose to use it.
Here's a brief run-down of how Twitter works: Once your account has been set up, you find people to "follow." Once you are "following" someone, their Twitter messages appear on your Twitter page. In turn, the people who follow you get your "tweets" in their accounts. You can tweet whatever you like, using fewer than 140 characters. This can include everything from your weekend plans, to commentary on a news event or issue, to links to articles and other information.
AlterNet has a lively Twitter account that you should take a look at if you are already on Twitter, or if you are thinking of joining. You'll get invited to participate in AlterNet contests (such as our recent six-word challenge), you'll get AlterNet content delivered to your account, and you can use Twitter to start conversations about AlterNet content and talk to our writers and editors. Twitter is also set up so that you can "retweet" others' tweets -- a really easy way to share AlterNet content with friends.
So, give Twitter a try, and check out AlterNet's page: it's not scary, it's not stupid and it's not a time-suck.
It's a great way to get and share information and create communities around shared interests.
See more stories tagged with: alternet, twitter, social networking
Tana Ganeva is an assistant editor at AlterNet.
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