#FollowFriday On Twitter Once Again!

It’s another Friday and that means it’s another #followfriday on Twitter! This is a day when sometimes our Twitter streams get very noisy with people making suggestions of some of their favorite people they follow on Twitter. The idea is to recommend people who are worth following on Twitter.

Once again this week, instead of tossing a list of people into a 140 character tweet on Twitter, I’m following the advice of Steve Woodruff on a way to streamline #followfriday. If you’d like to read more about Steve’s suggestion you check out his blog entry entitled Improving #FollowFriday.

First off, if you aren’t on Twitter, you can head on over to the main Twitter website and set up an account. It’s really easy to set up a Twitter account.

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#FollowFriday On Twitter

Friday on Twitter is known as #FollowFriday. In case you’re not aware of what Twitter is, let me give you a brief description before I go any further.

Twitter is a social networking site. Actually, it’s better known as a microblog because you’re limited to 140 characters per tweet. Instead of filling up this entire post with links scattered throughout, at the end of the post I will give all the links in one place. So, you can read this brief description here, without feeling the need to click on a link. But, you will want to do so later on at the end of this post.

I discovered Twitter a long time ago. I’m not really sure when I joined, but I know I was one of the early adopters. But then again, I usually like to try out new things as soon as they hit the Internet. I played around for a while, but wasn’t really sure what added value Twitter brought to my Internet use. However, as time went on, I started discovering some great new friends. It’s a social network for people to connect on many levels. While some use it solely as a marketing tool, there’s much more to it than that. As a matter of fact, while many marketers may have big numbers for followers, they seldom interact, and for me, I usually ignore their requests for me to follow them. I’m not interested in an endless stream of marketing information.

I’m looking for interaction.

So, how does one find interesting people to follow on Twitter? That’s where #FollowFriday comes in. Usually every Friday people simply tweet out a list of @people they’re following. In other words, it’s a recommendation from one person to follow another person. Over the past few weeks, #FollowFriday has resulted in a lot of noise as people simply send out endless lists of @friend suggestions. I’ve actually started ignoring many of them because I simply don’t have time to look over every suggested person.

What to do, what to do, what to do?

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He Leaned On His Staff

Through the years the way we record our family history has changed. In the Old Testament the patriarch of the family always carried a staff. Of course the staff itself had many uses. It was a shepherd staff to keep the sheep in line. It was also a walking stick helping the young shepherd make his way through the rocky hillside. As the years moved along, the staff even took on more of a cane use instead of just a simple walking stick. Whatever the case may be, one thing was sure, the staff stayed with the patriarch throughout his life. 

But, the staff was far more than just a simple walking stick or cane. The staff also contained the geneology and history of that particular family. Etched along the patriarch’s staff were important events that took place in his life. Births, deaths, movements through time. All tracking and keeping a chronological order of the patriarch’s life.

The staff was how the Sojourner kept track of his journey as he made his way through life here on earth.

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The weekend is here and that means many are looking for something a little different to do. It’s been a while since I’ve done a Frenzied Friday, and while I don’t have my Mr. Linky up and running on this post, we can call this a Mini Frenzied Friday.

For me, my parents are coming to town this weekend. They celebrated their 53rd wedding anniversary this week, and we’re heading out to the Sterling Renaissance Festival in Sterling, New York. It’s always a lot of fun, and this year Laura from Royal Rags is going to dress my wife and I up in Renaissance period cloths. If you’re interested in seeing pictures, and if you’re on Twitter, be sure to follow me on my Twitter Account. I will be posting pictures throughout the day via Twitter.

If you’re not near Sterling, New York, here’s a list of some other interesting things to do…

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Thomas Merton penned these words a number of years ago – No man is an island - Merton was an interesting man who lived a pretty wild life, or so many think, before becoming a monk. Much of his life is told in the book Seven Story Mountain. Merton was also the last monk allowed to become a hermit. Somewhere along the line the church realized living totally alone, in silence, was not a healthy thing. As a matter of fact in all of creation there’s only one time the Creator said “This is not good.” Those words were uttered when He saw Adam was lonely. He said “This is not good” and Eve was then created.

We live in a world where many people try to be islands. We have our work cubicles, our small cars, our little apartments, single serving dinners, and half a loaf of bread. Add on top of that the computer and the Internet, and suddenly many in the world today simply don’t interact with people. Sure, we have our many networks which give us a sense of connection, but reality is, if there’s no human connection, is there really a connection at all?

I find it interesting that in the midst of the singleness of the Internet with one person sitting in front of a computer screen, there’s an explosion of social networks on the Internet. Just today I received yet another invitation to another social network I didn’t even know existed. Someone sent me an invitation to a network called Reunion. Just what I need, another social network ID. Of course since I know the person who invited me, I went ahead and joined. Now I’m on Facebook, MySpace, Plaxo, LinkedIn, MyBlogLog, and a host of other bookmarking sites that enables me to list friends! When will the madness end?

In the midst of all the social networks, I suddenly found myself pondering the words of Thomas Merton once again – No man is an island – Could it be there’s something built inside each one of us that longs for some kind of relationship? Some kind of network? Some kind of interaction with others? Even if it’s via a blinking cursor on a computer screen, there’s something built inside each one of us that longs for some kind of human contact.

Aside from all the social networks I’m part of, I also have a Twitter account. It’s amazing to watch the Tweets among all my “friends.” But, what’s even more amazing is to watch those friends connect with other Twitter friends in their own area. Tweet-ups take place every day. Not a day goes by that I don’t see something like — So and so is meeting with @name, and @name and maybe @name too!

Once again, I find myself pondering the great truth uttered so long ago in the garden — Adam was lonely, this is not good.

A Fellow Sojourner,
Dr. Rus