Tags: Facebook

Linking Twitter and Facebook is a bad idea.

Posted on 14 March 2009 in Annoyances | View Comments

I hate the app that links Twitter and Facebook. At first it seems like a really good idea, I bet. You think you’ll gain followers on Twitter effortlessly while maintaining your Facebook status.

I don’t know about you but I use Facebook to connect with (or should I say spy on?) people who have a direct relationship with me – most are family, friends or acquaintances whom I’ve met in real life at one point or another. On Twitter I have peers, friends and complete strangers following me.

My Facebook status is generally more intimate (ie: how I’m feeling, what I’m up to). It’s something I’d tell a friend on the phone. If I want to share a link, photo or video I use the functionality built in to Facebook and rarely use my status to do so.

In my opinion, tweets should be less personal but more relatable, interesting, and thought-provoking. The purpose of my tweets is to trigger a response: to have others follow me, @reply or RT (re-tweet).

There is also an element of reader anonymity on Twitter. Since I don’t necessarily know all of my followers, posting a tweet is kind of like being my own publicist. I have to be careful not to complain about clients or share too much about what I’m working on out of concern for who might see it.

On Facebook, I know who will see my status and it is intended for that specific audience. I know that the bulk of my Facebook friends would not enjoy 10 reply and re-tweets flooding their news feeds each day.

You get it now, I hope. Different audiences equals different statuses/tweets. And remember – nobody wants your posts showing up in their feed aggregator twice!

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25 things you probably don’t know about me

Posted on 31 January 2009 in Personal | View Comments
  1. I can twitch a muscle in my left eyelid that is also somehow connected to a muscle on the left side of my mouth. I’ve never met anyone else who can do this
  2. I wore a fake tooth on a retainer for about 6 months
  3. When I was little, I was scared of the toilet monster, so I’d flush the toilet really fast and then run to my bed, because if I was on my bed he couldn’t get me.
  4. I had been to Florida and back 16 times by car before my first time in an airplane.
  5. My favourite colour is different all the time, depending on my mood.
  6. In high school, I got sent to the office once for having a PMSing teacher and no gym clothes.
  7. I took an IQ test in grade 3 that labelled me ‘gifted’ and I had to go to special classes for enhanced learning.
  8. I have a tattoo on my left wrist of my grandmother’s signature “Joy”
  9. In school, kids used to call me Army Mahon (army man)
  10. I went to college for web design but by then I had already been teaching myself for 8 years
  11. I had formal training on what to do in a bank robbery.
  12. After first year of college I lost 35 lbs through diet and exercise. I blame residence food for the gain!
  13. I’m accident prone. Over the years I have:
    • Split my head open after tipping my rocking chair onto a wood stove (3 stitches)
    • Fractured my arm while ice skating
    • Fell off my bike and the handlebars dug into my abdomen (9 stitches)
    • Sprained my ankle while doing a cartwheel
    • Broke my big toe knuckle (don’t know what it’s really called)
    • Torn both my hamstrings
    • Had a mosquito bite reaction – grew to a 10cm radius
  14. I find it easier to be friends with guys than girls. So if you’re a girlfriend of mine, you must be worth the effort!
  15. I have 14 first cousins, all of whom are on facebook.
  16. I’d rather have a planned elope than a stressful traditional wedding.
  17. My eyes are green on the top and brown on the bottom with little spirograph patterns in them (= hazel)
  18. I had my first kiss when I was 16, on a bridge overlooking a waterfall in the moonlight.
  19. I regret not running for student council in high school.
  20. I really enjoy figure drawing classes (a.k.a drawing the nudies)
  21. I’ve had pneumonia twice and at any given time there is fluid in my lungs.
  22. I used to have a very messy room but as soon as I moved out of my parents’ house I became obsessively clean.
  23. I love kids and definitely want my own someday. I won the award for having the highest mark in Parenting class in grade 11 and I used to be a camp counsellor.
  24. My mom built me a rocket for my Physics class, which helped me immensely. Thanks, mom!
  25. I take a steroid puffer daily for my asthma

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