Tweet Week: Why (this) BW is on Twitter

[caption id="attachment_1184" align="alignleft" width="197" caption="my favorite of the black twitterbirds designed by blogger Inny Vinny at the height of Blacktwittergate"][/caption]

Ladies and gentlemen of the African-American community, give yourselves a hand! Apparently everything we do is of interest to the "mainstream." Lately there has been an proliferation of articles about why so many Black people are on Twitter, how we use Twitter, and articles lambasting the articles about Black people on Twitter. I guess it doesn't occur to many of those who are fascinated by our use of social media that our interest and intent are as varied as any other people's. And to further clear things up--or muddy the waters, depending on how you're looking at it--we sometimes have multiple uses for it! *hands on head* It's so confusing! I knooow!

So since I can't give anyone a reason why other people are on tha twittah, here are my reasons/uses for it:

• To promote myself and my blog From my site stats (yes I check those!) I see that a lot of hits come from folks clicking the links in my tweets. Twitter is a great, free way to promote any and everything.


• To connect with other like-minded (and not-so-like-minded) people Initially I didn't think that Twitter would be good for this. After all, that's what Facebook was for, right? Umm, not so much. While FB is good for reconnecting with old friends, it's a little more than I want to share with complete strangers. But thanks to a few tweets and well-placed hashtags, I've e-met other natural hair aficionados, artists, writers/bloggers, frat & sorors, Jacksonians that can tell me what's going on around here and business people.


• To keep up with what's going on I should probably be ashamed to admit it, but I get a lot of news now in 140 characters or less. Seriously, when the president announced that we'd killed Osama bin Laden, I'd already read it an hour earlier via Twitter. Of course, it's usually not that serious; more along the lines of who won the game, big events (most recently AGP), conference highlights, etc.


• To clear my mind of random thoughts Occasionally I put Twitter to use as a sort of stream of consciousness. If something happens to pop into my head (that I don't deem too unsavory to share) it usually ends up in a tweet. Sometimes it sparks debate, other times I'm just talking to myself. Doesn't matter though because those tweets are just to make room for more important thoughts in my head.


• To get a good laugh Y'all don't know how much time is spent guffawing over twitpics, jokes, e-thugging and stupidity (shout out to Dumbest Tweets Ever for all the shenanigans they post). When I need a pick me up, Twitter is the place for a quick (and usually cheap) laugh.

Now that I've explained my reasons for being on Twitter pretty much all day, every day, tell me why you're there! BTW, have we connect on Twitter? Well why the heck not?! Follow me!