Twitter Revolution

Twitter... Twitter... Twitter.

A word I've heard often in the last year or so... Rick Sanchez and Don Lemon both "twitter" on their CNN newscasts. Celebrities have been twittering for a while also letting the whole world now about all the minutiae in their lives. It's even said that Jennifer Aniston became annoyed with boyfriend's John Mayer's Twitter "addiction

Well, after hearing so much about Twitter and the media and from tech-savvy friends I decided to jump aboard a few months ago.

It's an interesting proposition... think text message meets blog... you got 140 characters to share an idea and express to all your followers... aka Twitter friends who sign up to read all your updates.

It's so interesting, that some British school officials are considering teaching students not only about the Bard upon Avon, but also about Twitter devotees such as Ashton Kutcher.

At the moment friends who have Twitter are following me as are an interesting array of people in the U.S. and around the world who I do not know, but am "getting to know" maybe.

Some say Twitter has reached its peak, jumped the shark while other say the Twitter Revolution is very beginning. I tend to agree with the latter.

On my Blackberry, thanks to Twitterberry, I get to read all my friends updates. But I only get to follow my real-life friends, but journalists, bloggers and news organizations. I get updates from them giving me fascinating links or updating me on the latest story. It's like I'm in a newsroom with the AP wire going crazy, but in a whole new way.

That's why I say this is a revolution. You can receive media in a whole new way and that's exactly what living the "eLife" is all about! I look at my phone and know what just happened in places that are important to me... say CNN for world news, Salt Lake Tribune for Utah News, New York Times, for my "hometown's" news... big hometown i know... Le Monde, for French news (J'aime la France) or Colombia's El Tiempo, to know what's happening where my grandparents live.
I get links and then I can retweet them... RT... basically I can share what I got from one of my friends with my followers. I can also interact with them and they can read what I have to say on the subject. If they're real-life friends they'll read it and if they have thousands of followers they might not get to read it, but then again they might.

On CNN for example, during Sanchez's and Lemon's show many of the Twitter comments are actually read on the air!

It's changing news media in an incredible way where there is much more transparency and interaction.

It's fascinating and it's another example of social determinism. For those who choose to follow this new form of media and social networking they can be on top of things and be informed. It's using the internet and new technologies to our advantage.

So... follow me @edgarzuniga

For those who don't know Twitter speak that would be... create an account @ twitter.com and then follow me @ twitter.com/edgarzuniga

Since originally writing this media giants like Larry King and Oprah Winfrey have joined Twitter. Ms. Winfrey garnered more than 300,000 followers within a week.