Do you remember when a tweet was the sound a bird made and hash was something you ate for breakfast?
I have to admit I Tweet. But it's one of those things I do without fully understanding why I'm doing it or what it's really all about. Kind of the way I am with working (heh heh). But seriously, people go on there and say random things in 140 characters or less and other people see it - or they don't see it. Then these others (ususally strangers) either comment or they don't comment. I appreciate the brevity, certainly, but isn't the whole thing a little like talking to yourself or worse yet, talking to strangers (which I for one was raised not to do)?
Alas - I know this Twitter thing is all the rage, so I press on. Trying to follow more people, get more followers and generally understand what the whole thing is about. And just when I was starting to get the hang of it, along came hash tags. You know, that's when people put the # sign before a word so that other Twits (Twitterers??), can talk on a common topic.
Okay - so now it's like a bunch of Twits can talk and not listen or maybe listen and answer or not answer on the same topic at the same time. Sounds kinda like my family. But I digress again.
With hash tags, I am finding that I can actually get something meaningful from Twitter. If I find a hash tag on a topic I am interested, I can go back and read what everyone is saying and possibly pick up some real gems. Kind of like shopping at a discount store. Lots of junk on the racks, but some good stuff there too.
So that brings me to my point... #FridayReads. This is kind of a fun hash tag that was started by @TheBookMaven where every Friday, people tweet what they are reading using the hash tag #fridayreads. And then the results of the most popular reads are tallied on a blog at: http://fridayreads.blogspot.com/. It's like the New York Times Bestseller list of the future. But better because anyone can participate.
So if you tweet - tweet #fridayreads today and every friday. And if you don't tweet perhaps you should think about it. Or maybe just give it a try. It's free to join and (even though I still don't entirely get it) a bit addicting!
-- Dana Barrett, Contributing Editor (You can follow me on Twitter at @DanaHBarrett or follow the Reading Group Guides tweets at @ReadingGGuides )
