Twitter and the "Brain Pick"

Last year I made a Twitter account.  For a while I had resisted the new social media phenomenon, with the popular justification that I now despise:  "I don't care when Justin Timberlake is going to the bathroom or about what Chad Ochocinco had for breakfast."  I didn't then, and I don't now.  So why hop on the bandwagon?

The inspiration came from a conversation I had with a close friend of mine at school.  A journalism major and social media fanatic, Michael told me a story about a paper he needed to write for a class.  The prompt was vague--"what makes you happy?"  Rather than ponder his happiest days, fondest activities, or favorite flavors of ice cream, he decided to review his Twitter posts for answers.  Michael was able to write an entire academic paper using his daily feed of personal tid-bits.  This was enough for me to create an account.  For all the times where I realized something about myself and never wrote it down, or had a new idea to ponder, I now had a method of conveying my thoughts to whoever wanted to listen.  Twitter would be my new running journal of single-sentence realizations.

So I set out on a journey through the Twitterverse, and soon changed the way I thought about the world around me.  In time, Twitter became a reflective outlet, along with a customized news source and a real-time view into the lives of my favorite friends, athletes, writers, and organizations.  My goal was to provide something meaningful every time I pressed "Tweet".  I sought out witty, observant, and thought-provoking ideas daily, and then worked to formulate them into perfectly-crafted sentences in 140 characters or less.  It was new-wave.  It was educational.  It was fun!  

A guitarist's (concrete) brain pick.

I'm convinced that this process of transforming reflection into brief, creative prose is a skill.  It forces you to live each day in search of brain picks.  When you find one, it's exciting.  You become motivated to think, and eager to share.  This is how social media can be a positive force for society.  (Follow me on Twitter: @cory_meyer).

So, why blog?

Reason 1:  I'm approaching the one-year anniversary of my first tweet (April 21, 2010), and have since discovered that the art of condensing thoughts into 140-character nuggets doesn't suffice all the time.  Brain picks aren't meant to be contemplated with such brevity.

Reason 2:  I recently came back from a ten-day service trip to Rwanda which reshaped my perspective on life in many ways.  I'm thinking about the way society and the world operate.

Reason 3:  Diaries are supposedly childish and girly, but ironically social media has made it cool by adding pictures, allowing people to comment, and letting readers "like" entries with a cyber thumbs-up.  Now they're all the rage.  They're in.  Why not share my thoughts with the world? I might just give someone a brain pick.