Miss MacLeod’s Virtual Pub

I think that just having to ask myself that question lets me know I have a problem. Twitter was down for a brief period this afternoon. Sadly, the Pogo Games Mother’s Day events coincided with the planned outage. Even though I knew it was coming, I felt somewhat frantic. Like the power had gone out in the night. For the first time, I realized my true twitter dependency.

I use twitter for everything. Friends, professional colleagues, news. I have even resorted to tweeting my daughter to get her attention when she had headphones on and did not hear me knock on her door to let her know dinner was ready. I tweet to get opinions and reviews on software and other products before I buy them. I tweet during baseball games and rugby matches. I even admit to tweeting during American Idol.

Twitter has been the best thing to come along in years. Much better than instant messaging. Now with the addition of twibes, the like minded can gather in a virtual world that has no boundaries. In my genealogy twibe, we have members from all corners of the earth, limited only by time zones. I do also confess to staying up to late to communicate with genealogists from Australia. Twitter is just too good to give up.

So, back to the addiction problem - is it a problem? Have I ever missed work because of Twitter? No. Have I become disconnected from family and friends due to Twitter. No - the opposite - however one could argue that talking rather than tweeting when you are in the same house would be more appropriate behavior. Have I ever had trouble getting up in the morning after a night of heavy twittering? Yes. I admit to that one. Have I suffered physically because of Twitter? Perhaps. It is hard to tweet and exercise at the same time, but I do have skinny, well muscled fingers.

After analyzing the situation, I have decided to keep tweeting. I may even tweet more. I may even spend the evening designing a new Twitter background.

Oh, let’s face it. I am addicted, and I don’t care. I love Twitter, and nothing will stop my tweeting, even if I must tweet in secret. Just don’t tell anyone - especially about the American Idol bit!