Letter from the editor: Follow me! Watch this space!
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Your support makes all the difference.It was, to be honest, quite a tricky moment. There I was on Sky News yesterday morning being interviewed by Eamonn Holmes about the Twitter 100 feature in yesterday's i.
I was saying how Twitter had grown from a medium in which nobodies and somebodies exchanged banalities into a news network that broke stories and fuelled revolutions. It was a phenomenon we ignored at our peril, I said.
And then Eamonn turned to me: “So, do you tweet yourself?” I had to admit that no, I don’t. Eamonn’s eyebrows hit his forehead: how can this man who’s been telling us just how important and exciting Twitter is not actually use it himself? I explained that my life is so boring that no one would be interested in anything I do or think, but that’s only part of the answer.
I regard this daily letter as a printed tweet that’s rather longer than 140 characters and, believe it or not, is the product of a little thought and effort. If I tried regular tweeting on top of this (plus the matter of editing the newspaper, not to mention listening to the managing director’s latest wheeze), I think I wouldn’t do anything as well as I’d like.
In addition, I just don’t have enough profound thoughts, or interesting experiences, to sustain a regular Twitter feed (although I did see Sharron Davies in a tracksuit yesterday). I understand that I’m talking to a captive audience with this letter, and going on Twitter would increase i’s reach, but I’m realistic enough to believe that my utterings might have the effect of turning people off the paper. And, what’s more, I’d find it hard to live in a world where I’d have fewer followers than Piers Morgan. Follow me! Watch this space!
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