Twitter

I've googled "twitter" for the first time today because I'm curious as to what all the buzz is about. I went directly to the homepage and saw where I could register. The home page boasts "Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?"

I belong(ed) to facebook and myspace. (I've recently deleted my myspace account because I just can't keep up with it all and all of my friends who were on that website were also on facebook.) I love my family and friends. I really do. I do want to know how they're doing, what they're up to... but this obsession with the internet to keep tabs on everybody, to know what everybody is thinking every second of every day "in real time" as twitter brags, it's exhausting and eats away at precious time. I log onto facebook and have to actally think of something to say that is interesting enough to enough people to actually bother to write about it. Most of the time it's just not there but I still feel compelled to update.

So how many ways do we need to keep in touch with one another? I have my blog. I also have Sadie's blog. To be fully honest MOST of my family and friends probably don't even read them even though it would be so easy to keep up with us that way yet I keep them up to date as much as I can just in case somebody wants to know what's been happening in our lives.

I'm on Linked In.

There's my cell phones with text messaging. That's 24 hour access to me.

There is email that I feel compelled to check multiple times throughout the day for a variety of reasons. It's just natural with my family being an ocean away that I want to see "what's up".

At work I have another email account that I must check daily.

I do/did belong to 3 different internet message boards that I wanted to keep up with, each with their own "specialty" topics.

There are the other blogs that I want to keep up with, my fellow weight loss bloggers, my Post Secret thrill every Sunday morning... the whole lot.

Then there is facebook. The biggest time sucker. I'm taking quizzes, answering polls, sending hugs, throwing Justin Timberlake at people... it's never ending, the action on facebook. I have decided I am going to only have "friends" on there that I know in real life and it ends up I know a whole lot of people.

So now I'm thinking "do I have to keep up with the Jones's" and join the most recent, life altering, best-thing-ever, must have internet tool and join the masses who are twittering? I'm exhausted just writing about keeping up with another tool. When did all of our lives become so damned interesting that we've deemed it necessary to share every "I'm walking the dog" or "I'm going to bed" or "I'm dreading work"?

Maybe it's just my mundane life that makes me feel un-twitter-worthy but really, do you really want to know? Don't I share enough in all of the other places? If there were no internet how much of my life would remain private with the small handfuls of exceptions in which I would share my "juicy bits" with? Who would know the struggles I've had with my weight? Who would know the personal hell that was our infertility? Who would know the true elation that was my pregnancy? Who would once again know of the emotional battle I struggle with daily in regards to my food issues? When is enough, enough?

Today. Today enough is enough for me. I'm not joining twitter. It's nothing personal against the website. I'm sure it's lovely. I'm going to focus on me for a while and by that I mean I will keep up with my blog. And probably facebook. And Sadie's blog. I'll answer my emails both at home and at work. You can reach me by phone both at home and my mobile. I will still occasionally visit my message boards You will not, however, find me twittering. Not today. Not now. Not ever.