Deep Twitter Thoughts while Twitter is Down

Well, Twitter is down for the day was scheduled to go down today, but hasn’t yet, so I’m left with no outlet but this I still have Twitter as of right now to record all my deep thoughts.  I (anticipated that I would) feel a little alone without the constant background chatter.  I don’t know how Teri’s trivia turned out, if Steve’s got spa plans, or exactly how cold it is in St. Paul.  I’m fairly sure the Jeff/Zebra seesmic barrage will continue, they’ll just have to let each other know of updates somewhere else.  I hear that T-mobile has blocked tweets, so Jay is out of luck.  Next time I back over a light fixture, he won’t learn about that until hours later, instead of instantly on his phone.  The Dalton appears to be AWOL anyway, after a trip to San Diego.

What I find ironic is that I have a small processing problem in my head where – in real life – I have trouble focusing in on a single voice when there is background noise, due to a bout of meningitis when I was a kid.  And yet I love Twitter.  I can handle digital background noise, but not actual background noise.

I feel like I finally understand what happens at a large party – those places where I tend to find a seat on the side and happily observe from a distance by myself.  In real life, I’m not much for crowds as it takes enormous effort to concentrate on one person’s voice – it’s too frustrating, and often an effort in futility if the room is loud enough.  In Twitterworld, I can flit from one group chat to another, hear that digital conversation going on just behind my left shoulder, see two folks talking in the distance and not really follow along but enjoy watching their virtual hand gestures in the course of an animated discussion.

And I can turn it on and off at will.  Well, except for 10am to 10pm PST today. 

Maybe it’s finding a home in blog-o-topia, or Twitter (certainly not Facebook), but I’m finding myself more social in real life as well.  There’s a whole portion of social interaction in groups that I kinda missed out on that I’m starting to learn and – horror of horrors – enjoy.  People think I’m kidding when I say my last job had me sitting in a lab, alone,  where I could go for weeks at work without needing to speak, except at group lunch.  (Consequently, I am the Minesweeper Champion, but that’s another story.)

So – in a way, Twitter is good for me.  I actually invited people over to my house tonight, and loud people at that.  It’ll be fun.  We’ll throw some ribeyes on the BBQ and… well, we’ll do some real-life twittering.