For several weeks, it has felt like my brain is plugged into the internet. I am rarely away from my computer for a span longer than a few hours. Usually this sort of behaviour means I’ve become highly addicted to a new video game, or created a new website, but that is not the case this time. This phase usually always leads to feelings of loneliness and isolation, but I find myself feeling quite the opposite lately. I began to use a Twitter account, and of course, my WordPress account, way more than before. It’s been an interesting, and mixed, experience. Through Twitter I found a way to keep up to date (up to the minute even), with most of my favourite topics of interest. These topics range from journalism, to soccer (hello @Thierry_Henry and @zlatans_offical), literature, films, friends, tweeting, blogging, hip hop (you’ve got to follow @chamillionaire, he constantly updates and tweets back to his fans), hockey, etc, etc, etc…
It is an interesting feeling to read posts by your favourite authors (hello @neilhimself, @MargaretAtwood and @gladwell), about the regular stuff they are up to. It’s great fun to have twitter exchanges with them as well. It’s been a very interesting way of keeping up to date. It brings the news cycle into your head it seems. It illustrates the power of the internet to run the newscycle. That being said, it’s time to discuss my favourite thing about Twitter; journalism.
Since joining up on Twitter, I have learned a phenomenal amount about modern day journalism. It’s a fairly well-established “fact” that journalism is dying, I thought. I had remained optimistic this was not the reality of the situation, but everywhere an aspiring journalist looked, doom glared back. Some journalists are claiming this is not the case however. I have had the fortune of finding some brilliant journalists(@wodekszemberg, @GenevieveKoski, @TAudette, @EdVeilleux) and aspiring journalists on Twitter (@lavrusik, @lindork), who have, in most cases, expanded my knowledge of journalism or opened up new content for me. Following Vadim Lavrusik’s twitter has been particularly enlightening for me in regards to how social media is affecting journalism, which makes sense considering he is a social media consultant amongst his vast array of skill sets. His Twitter provides constant links of interest for journalists, and has helped me understand the industry a hundred times better than I did before discovering his tweets. Thanks Vadim! I highly recommend following all of the listed tweets though, as well as any newspapers that interest you (I recommend NY Times,TorStar, Daily Beast, Exiled, The Tyee, New Statesman, Northern Life, and the Sudbury Star for sure). You will be brought up to speed quickly on the world around you.