What to do with Twitter?

A week or two ago, a professional colleague (for lack of a better word 🙂 asked me what I think is a pretty good question, “I can’t tell if it’s professionally wise or socially irresponsible to stay silent about my political views. @jasondlee thoughts?” It’s a tough question, I think, so here’s my rambling answer. 🙂

Twitter is, for me, a mostly personal outlet. Yes, I follow several peers, etc from around the industry, but I also follow friends from church, politicians, journalists, commentators, comedians, musicians, etc. For the most, I try to segregate my blogging into “personal” (here and here) and professional (here). Twitter, though, I tend to treat as more of a middle of the road outlet, more like the hallway conversations I’d be having if I worked in an office. Since I don’t, I tend to ramble more on Twitter. People that don’t like that know where the “unfollow” button is (and, believe me, from what little I’ve paid attention to follower counts, it gets used :).

Having said that, whether it seems like it or not, I try to be sensitive to the interests of my followers. I try not to spend too much time on political or religious matters, and, to a lesser extent (for the benefit of my Facebook Friends who see all my tweets via the Twitter app), I try not to tweet every geeky idea that comes to mind. I am, though, admittedly, MUCH less concerned with the latter. They can (and do, I hear 🙂 hide me from their stream on Facebook if they want to.

Some topics, though, I feel are either too important to filter out of my Twitter stream, so they get some attention. I also know that I follow a lot of people who don’t hold my positions, be they political or theological (and some even technical). Despite how incredibly awful Twitter is for real discussions (“Twitter is where conversations begin, then move somewhere more appropriate”, I’ve heard, kind of like this one), I do enjoy hearing the opposing viewpoint to the topic du jour. If I only ranted about this politician or that dangerous theological idea to the Duke stress relief squeezy, I wouldn’t get the sharpening and education that comes from active, public discussion (such as it is on Twitter).

So, in a nutshell, I treat Twitter as a *mostly* unfiltered venue for discussion/venting. That may irritate some and may cost me professionally (tough to say on that front), but I’m OK with that. I say nothing on Twitter that I wouldn’t say in a hallway conversation or a coffee shop. If someone doesn’t like that, well, there’s the unfollow button. 😛