Cellphone Blogging

This is an experiment in Twitter-style blogging as discussed in previous post:

Hi snr. On bus home. Promised a post via text so here it is. Short & sweet. Attempting 2 develop social network site for project @ work. Ironic no? Reading groundswell and they suggest joining existing network whenever possible. Audience is teens so facebook app may b way 2 go although boss wants something he has propriety over. Interesting dilemma. Problem is we need 2 seed content on either. Not enough staff. Not viable option? All this in less than 500 characters. Not bad anna.

Okay, so this is longer than a Tweet but it was the maximum text length my cell phone would allow. Still an interesting experiment in brevity. Managed to a) express myself in a very limited space and b) occupy my time while commuting. Apparently most cellphone novelists composed their books while on the subway in Tokyo. Just goes to show what can happen when you put idle time to good use.

Martha Twitters About Dead Doggie

Here's a case in which the brevity of Twitter may not be the best option...

Seems a little cold, no? And to make matters worse, here's the Tweet Martha posted an hour prior:

I wonder what she's making- Chow Fun? Chow Mein? Tee hee.

Twitter Literature

I've heard that in Tokyo, people are getting novels published that they have composed on their cell phones. These "cellphone novels" topped the best-seller list in Japan last year. Pretty incredible. Most are written by young women and involve love stories written in short sentences with little plot.

I once kept a journal using the notes function of my cell phone. I loved the challenge of fitting my thoughts into such a small space. There's something about brevity that really forces you to prioritize your feelings and focus on the things that are troubling you most. And it was for this reason that I actually enjoyed Facebook's update function.

I'm told that Twitter is exactly that- the update function without the rest of the junk that comes along with Facebook. I like the concept but I refuse to get sucked into yet another social networking fade. However, journalists are now using Twitter to report on breaking news stories. Tweets are restricted to 140 characters and are therefore forcing reportes to be brief. Connie Coyne of The Salt Lake Tribune gave a great example of this using the Lord's Prayer:

R dad in sky: U r cool here & on high. Ur will is all. Feed & nurture us. 4 give us & we forgive. Let us evade temptation & evil. Amen.

This has inspired me to compose my next blog post via cell phone...stay tuned.