On March 21, 2006, Twitter was born when Jack Dorsey sent the first tweet. Now, literally billions of tweets are emitted from mobile phones, computers, and other technology as people share news, updates from life, links, and sundry other 140 character pieces of information.
I joined the world of twitter on May 26th, 2008 while attending a leadership conferences for churches called Drive. I wasn't quite sure what to do with the technology at that point in time, but I thought it might be worth checking out. Over the last three years of my own use, I've been able to see it used a number of ways, including staying connected with friends I've met during my life's journey. I've watched people use it to share information with others on an amazing scale, and I've seen Nuru International use it to share the release of media, updates from the field, and more.
Twitter is defined as a micro-blogging technology. Since you are reading this post, you probably know what a blog is. A Tweet is 140 characters long and can share anything from links to life reflections. There has even emerged a form of philanthropy called Twestival which in years past has been used to raise $250,000 for great organizations like charity: water.
With the emergence of smart phones and dozens of apps and platforms for managing twitter accounts, I'm curious to see where this technology is going. Do you have a twitter account? If so, what do you use it for? If not, what do you think about all of this tweeting going on?
Regardless, I think the emergence of twitter speaks to a great desire we have as human beings to share both information and experiences with others. Whether you tweet or not, may you find a community of people with whom you can share your experiences and may you together help make the world a better place.
Yesterday at 11:23:31AM, I logged my 2000th visitor to my blog during the month of April. For the last three months, I have been flirting close to 2000 visitors, and this month I got over the hump (particularly thanks to some of my friends who saw my message on facebook and checked it out. My final visitor count for the month of April was 2073. I think that deserves a celebration of some type as well!
I did a quick look at the visitors I’ve had recently, and for the last 500 visitors I had I saw how many people check out the page. In the last 500 visitors, I had visitors from 32 states (and Washington DC), 4 canadian provinces, and 28 different countries. Who would have thought that so many people would be tuned into what I’ve been writing about?
I am humbled that this means of communication has caught on and that so many would take an interest in what’s happening in my world in the place where faith and life collide. As a result of the increasing number of visitors, I’m going to attempt to spruce up the space a bit, and make it a little more interactive for folks. Of course its all not going to change overnight, but I am going to try to make some incremental changes—any suggestions?
Thanks again for reading, for leaving comments, and for the encouraging words I hear from you about this blog. It’s an honor and a privilege to share my life and journey of faith with you, may we have many more seasons of a shared experience here on the web!