Monday, March 16, 2009

Follow Me?!


I have been using Twitter now for nearly as long as Twitter has been around under the name nickjohnson. I have found it very useful for getting messages out to my friends and families as well as being able to follow people that I am legitimately interested in what they are up to (yes, that includes MC Hammer, ;)). With all that I was doing on Twitter, I thought to myself, "Maybe I should talk about Masonic stuff." So I did. (I realize that there are those out there that truly hate Twitter. They hate Twitter so much that they wish that it would just collapse on itself from the pressure like a 10 year old Casino in Las Vegas. If that is you, I would suggest that you stop reading this particular post. Go outside and think about the beautiful spring day and tell yourself that Twitter doesn't exist.)

Currently, you can find me @nickjohnson where I post at least one question concerning Masonry each weekday. I also use Twitter as a feed blaster letting my readers know when I have posted on my site. I really think that tools like Twitter can be incredibly effective at creating conversations between brothers. When one has only 140 characters, including spaces, to communicate his or her thoughts, it is advantageous to be accurate about what you write. That being said, Twitter is also built around the concept of informality. I have received a great many of responses from Twitter concerning the questions of the day that I have posted.

Now, I realize that I had been using the name @millennialmason but I have chosen to consolidate my posts into one name, @nickjohnson as it has become increasingly difficult knowing where I am posting. The elixir I bought from Dr. Jekyll has been taken away as he said he has another use for it and I have decided to keep all my thoughts in one place until he sells me some more. Also, my Lodge has a Twitter account @corinthian67. I thought we might as well get them in the act as well.

For brothers who are already members of Twitter, I would suggest that you join the freemasons Twitter Group. It is an amazing way for Masonic Twitters to get together and see each others posts and learn about what everyone is doing in their lodges and their lives. Twitter has been accused of being a huge time waster, or a version of stalker vision but it is much more than that. It is a place to meet with people that you would not meet on a place like Facebook. I remember seeing a post traveling around Twitter that stated something like, "Facebook is for people you know while Twitter is for people you are about to meet." I hope to create lasting conversations through this new media outlet.

2 comments:

Tom Accuosti said...

Hah - I'm right in the middle of writing a post about Masons using Facebook!
:-)

I typically use FB as a blaster when I've got a new post up. I've had a Tweet account for a while, but I find that I'm not in front of the PC enough to make it worth my time. But I do check FB several times a day, so I'm not sure what the difference is...

Millennial Freemason said...

@taccuosti I think the difference can be expressed in 140 characters only. ;)

I really think the next wave of Masonry will be built on the idea of social networking. This includes not only using the Internet but also just plain vanilla handshake-style networking. This use of networking, I think, will begin to change the horrible "Bowling Alone" years. Both can work in tandem to promote good cheer amongst the brothers.

Nick