Blog Versus Tweet

Due to various preoccupations and time constraint arising out of the same I had taken to microblogging for sometime, i.e., I started tweeting and exploring the Twitter sphere. I had been tweeting earlier also but these were restricted to sharing links of my blogs, wordle/waffle accomplishments or a brief comment on my recent watch on OTT. Now probing deeper into this world of tweets I found them good for sharing photos, small comments, YouTube clippings, promoting business, sharing political headlines and in general airing views on the latest news, disaster, sensation or finds.

Blogs on the other hand give you a world tour. You can come to know about people, cultures, lifestyles of different places where you can never think or plan to visit. You can exchange notes with like-minded bloggers. You can share your various valuable as well as myriad mundane moments without thinking whether these posts will be treated as worthless. You can share stories and poems without worrying about space. You can meet new bloggers and be friends. You find empathizers and sympathisers who pull you out of your blues by imparting gems of advices, though you may not meet ever physically. There is no restriction on what to write on. Your posts can be as varied as day and night.

Though, Twitter afficiandos have started tweeting long threads of tweets but they are not compact and are like brittle posts. The continuity is linked yet somewhat lost. Twitteraties have their own community of followers but I wonder whether they befriend each other. If your tweets attract attention you are on. If they don’t you are gone.

Another very interesting at the same time irritating fact that came to light was the number of Twitteraties who disguise their identity on Twitter. Even if you belong to his/her community of followers you don’t know who you are following or interacting with. It’s not that they are trolls or post controversial tweets but still they prefer to go incognito which is quite surprising. But Twitter is a world which is very much in the eye of the media. The online dailies carry articles based on tweets and photos shared. One of my comments on a tweet found place in such an article which was not very amusing as the writer branded me as a fan. But I was not. I had casually commented which became part of news without my permission which is quite scary because I am not one of those limelight seekers. Such action, as I now see, has the potential of causing an unwarranted storm as well. Thank God it did not.

I find celebrities taking tweets quite seriously. They thank you if the tweet is in their favour and ignore if they are anti. The most annoying facet of Twitter is how an event or a disaster or a piece of news gets talked about in an out of proportion manner. The discussion infuriatingly prolongs as though there is nothing else happening in the Universe and goes on and on till something else catches attention. I used to wonder when the media would say that such and such event has created a storm amongst the netizens. Now I know which platform they are referring to.

In comparison blogs are more peaceful. More personal. Whether anybody is regularly following or not it’s more rewarding, gratifying and satisfying. I like the detailed book or film reviews written by my co-bloggers, I come to know how life goes on in the remotest part of this planet, I relish how the older generation or my own contemporaries are enjoying life, I like to read the stories written by my virtual friends, I get inspired by the spiritual journeys undertaken by my compatriots. There is variety, a feeling of fulfillment , a completeness and of course camaraderie.

Coming back to blogging is not an afterthought or result of threadbare analysis. I had to come back. It’s just that I had taken a detour. That’s all.