Twitter - for the uninitiated . . .

Following a request for help on understanding Twitter from Clare over at Battlements of Rubies, I realise that explaining how Twitter works to the uninitiated is a bit like that old (but still very amusing) joke about explaining the rules of cricket to a foreigner.

When you first look into Twitter and what it's all about, if you're like me, you search for an account and look at their timeline (list of Tweets from the account holder in chronological order).

If you don't have an account yourself yet or have an account but are not 'following' many people then it looks like some sort of 'gobblydygook' as you will see a lot of disconnected statements some of which you can probably tell are replies to something or other.

To get the whole picture you need to be able to see the Tweets of the people the account holder is talking to.

Like many things, the best way to 'get it' is to set up an account and begin following people. As you become more familiar with how it works and more confident you'll find you naturally want to join in (at least, I think most people feel like that).

I would guess that most people have a spread of people they follow. A good starting point might be to add a few News sites like @BBCNews, @breakingnews and for Catholics how about @catholic herald, @lukecoppen @news_va_en? A lot of bloggers are also on Twitter; add some of your favourites to your 'following' list. You could add a few Twitter accounts of things you are particularly interested in; I follow a few sports sites; it might be politics (e.g. @number10gov), music, films, art galleries etc.

Twitter has jargon like any other social media. Here is a glossary of some of the more common terms. And here's the official Twitter version.

So, now you know your Tweeps from your twerps and your Followers from your stalkers, all you have to do is get Tweeting.

Name Change . . .

It seems to be the period for changes and updates of blogs judging by the new layouts which are appearing.

I started this blog three years ago and I wanted a 'nom de blog' which went with the title and made some sort of sense so I decided upon Miss Ellen E. (A play on words of the title - Miscellany . . . ).

Although I thought it glaringly obvious, I was surprised to realise that not everyone 'got it' straight away.

I've always thought it didn't quite fit, however, as I'm a married women with grown-up children, and the Miss part always sounded false to me.

I do however wish to retain my anonymity for the sake of my family as much as for me so I've decided to use my Twitter name of Idle Rambler to sign my blog posts from now on. There again it was a bit silly to have two separate IDs for the same person so finally the two have become one!

I hope you'll still pop in now and again to see what this particular Idle Rambler is up to. I must confess lately I've been 'idling' a lot more than 'rambling'. Hopefully as the weather improves I'll be tempted to don the old walking boots a bit more often and post some photos of the lovely sights I've seen on my wanderings.

Social Media . . .

Browsing through my Twitter timeline this evening, I noticed a link to another interesting post on Matthew Warner's blog.

In his post, he gives a list of insights based on recent statistics on social media published via a Youtube video.

Of the twelve items in Matthew's list, whilst all of them were interesting, some of them struck a particularly chord with me. (My comments in blue)

Over 50% of the world is under the age of 30.

i.e. What the young people in the Church are doing, how they are communicating, how well we are catechized and how authentic our lives are…matters…a lot.

'How well we are catechised and how authentic our lives are . . . matters . . . a lot.' How right he is. I think one of the best ways that all of us can help our young people is to be a good example of what it means to be a Catholic today. This means not only practising our faith but being informed about it and prepared to answer questions about what we believe and why.

iPod/iPhone applications hit 1 billion downloads in 9 months.

How many of them were Catholic apps? How many were made by Catholics? How many were actually good? Also - I’d love to see some creative and entertaining Catholic apps made by Catholics come out. Not just ones with lists of prayers (those are good, too, though).

I have just checked the apps on my iPhone. I have 68 (I was surprised to find it was so many!) in total at the moment and of them 9 of them are Catholic, mainly reference or liturgy/Divine Office based. I think all the Catholic apps I have are excellent and I use some of them daily.

The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 yr old females.

I thought this was one of the most interesting stats. While Facebook and other social media platforms are currently dominated by younger people, that is quickly changing.

Well, I guess I'm one of those 55-65 year-old females! What Matthew doesn't mention is that often once we 'oldies' latch onto something like this, it tends to make it less popular with younger people. After all, how many youngsters want to be associated with something that their parents, and even their grandparents are getting into? I don't know if this is the case with Facebook or not. It will be interesting to see if it can manage to keep its appeal for the youth at the same time as attracting a wider age-range of users.

Britney Spears has more twitter followers than the entire population of Israel, Ireland, Norway or Sweden.
How many spiritual leaders or positive role models get this kind of attention? Sad. But also an opportunity.

I would say there is definitely a Catholic presence on Twitter. In addition to many individuals, the Catholic press and Hierarchy are well represented. It seems to go hand in hand with blogging. Most bloggers are now on Twitter, I've noticed.

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world.

How many Catholic videos are on there? How many have been viewed more than 18 times? How many are well-done and a good representation of our Catholic faith?

There are many Catholic videos on YouTube. Some of them are very well done, especially those produced in America, I've noticed, but there's certainly room for a lot more, and some are pretty dire but then again so are a lot of the other videos on YouTube.

Social Media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. Decades from now (if not already) we will look back on this time as just that, a fundamental shift in the way information is shared and communities are nurtured. Will the Catholic Church be one of the shining examples of success? Or one of the laggers-behind?

Sorry, this has turned out to be quite a long post but do go on over and have a look at Fallible Blogma to see the whole list. It makes interesting reading.

Papal Visit - a flurry of activity . . .

There seems to be a sudden increase in information coming from the Papal Visit organisers. The Twitter feed has a flurry of tweets today including a link to the weekly audio update here.

In this update Mgr Andrew Summersgill talks about arrangements for Pilgrims, including the decision to reduce the Pilgrim contribution for Hyde Park to £5. Good news for Pilgrims but more work for those parishes where monies have already been collected (like ours) and refunds now have to be arranged.

He also mentions the launch of the online souvenirs shop (glad to see I got in early on that one! :-)).

For anyone on Twitter who doesn't know about the Papal Visit feed it's well worth adding - @thepapalvisit

Chocolate you can eat during Lent . . . surely, that's not the point?

Thanks to Londiniensis on Twitter today for the 'heads up' on this article in today's Telegraph, and the link to this blog whose author makes some interesting comments about fasting in Lent.

Anyone who dips into my blog from time to time will know that just the mere mention of the word 'chocolate' makes my ears prick up! Naturally then, I was keen to investigate further.

A chocolate you can eat without getting fat ? . . . and it tastes like the real thing? - Surely, it's too good to be true! I skimmed the 'science bit' and gather that the new 'miracle product' consisits of nearly 2/3 water - no wonder then that the calories are drastically reduced.

But . . . and it's a big but as they say - Why do we fast in Lent? Not to lose weight, even if that is sometimes a beneficial side-effect (she says, hopefully :-)) Surely fasting in Lent is all about penance, discipline and self-denial.

Going without chocolate or some other favourite treat surely comes under the heading of abstinence rather than fasting, anyway, I would have said. Fasting, according to my understanding means managing with less food overall (once again incidentally, possibly resulting in weight loss, though of course this is not the aim.)

There should be some fruits of our fasting and abstinence however. Hopefully, by 'accompanying' Our Lord during his 40 days of fasting in the wilderness and experiencing, albeit in an infinitesimal way, some of the temptations that were placed before Him, it will help us to grow spiritually and generally be better people by the end of Lent. Here's hoping anway!

Got to dash now and iron my hair shirt!

Logging off . . .

I’ve been thinking about it for a while but have finally decided to take a break from blogging.

I know, I’ve only just got started – nearly 18 months now.

When I started this blog it was aimed at family and friends and was going to be mainly a sort of online diary; a lot of trivial posts of not much interest to anyone who didn’t know the family.

But . . . family members found it difficult to access the blog with the password system so the only way they could access it was for me to ‘go public’. Fine by me as very few others would come by it accidentally anyway. Other members of my family are not quite as happy with this, however, so I try my hardest to keep my anonymity and resist posting family photos and referring to specific events and places that would identify us.

But, I feel it just doesn’t work this way. Naturally my life revolves around my family and work and avoiding references to either means I just end up with a lot of very bland posts and ‘fillers’.

If I find after a while that I really miss blogging then I think I’ll start a completely new blog under my real name and to heck with it.

Meanwhile I’m still on Twitter (idlerambler) if any of the handful of my readers wish to follow my inane tweeting – you’re very welcome . . . See ya!