Three ways to use Twitter: For fitness, humor, and grief

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People often ask social media types about Twitter. Does it matter? Should I be using it? How do you use it? Is it just a fad?

Rather than engaging those questions, I’ll just point you toward three possible uses. One is practical, one is humorous, and one is tragic.

A practical application of Twitter: weight loss. A friend of mine undertook a month-long project of tweeting his meals. The intent was not to lose weight, but he did:

Spending the time writing what I ate was really centering – I didn’t consume things mindlessly. The voyeuristic aspect of the project created an invisible pressure – knowing someone could be judging my decisions subtly pushed me to keep doing the right thing.

A friend pointed out I wasn’t the first person to Tweet What I Eat – there’s actually a whole fad diet around the idea that collective, silent pressure through exposure can help you lose weight. Though I did lose weight during the course of this exercise (10 pounds!), it wasn’t the deliberate goal.

- “Tweet What You Eat” – The Slow Food Blog.

A humorous application: humiliating your friends. Perhaps on their wedding night:

When a man in the UK was asked to be the best man at his friend’s wedding, he was touched. So touched, that he promised not to pull any pranks before or during the wedding. After the wedding though, that’s another story.

This man, who is choosing to stay anonymous, has set up this Twitter account for the sole purpose of automatically tweeting when the newlyweds are having sex.

- “Best Man Rigs Newlyweds’ Bed To Tweet During Sex. Not Kidding.” – TechCrunch via Josh Blackman

Then there are more serious and tragic applications. A mother active on Twitter has caused controversy this week after tweeting her grief:

Shellie Ross, Bryson’s mother, is a popular blogger, who chronicles her life as a mother of four, and the wife of an Air Force sergeant, and whose Twitter account, @Military_Mom, has more than 5,400 followers.

She tweeted those followers at 5:22 p.m. Monday, with a breezy update about the fog rolling in and spooking the chickens as she worked in her chicken coop. Sixteen minutes later, a 911 call was placed from her home saying that Bryson was lying at the bottom of the pool. At 6:12 p.m. she tweeted again: “Please pray like never before, my 2 yr old fell in the pool.” And five hours later, she wrote that she was “remembering my million dollar baby,” posting photos of the little boy.

- “Announcing a Child’s Death on Twitter” – Motherlode on NYT.com via Monkey Bars

Twitter appeals to many because it allows them to share their lives — the joys, the pains, and the humor — in a quick and easy way. Those 140 character messages can convey volumes about you.