Life in 140 Characters

I'm not sure how I feel about Twitter. I was a reluctant participant. I am over media'd as it is. I also know that keeping a PR person to 140 characters is nearly impossible, especially an "Old School" one who has spent a lifetime paring down two page releases into one page by playing with font size and margins. This number - this 140 -loomed large. The thought of it was akin to cramming a size 12 into a size 2. I just knew it wasn't a good fit, and it certainly held the potential of looking downright ugly.

Over the past few weeks, however, tweets have been a crucial part of my life. I've checked in with friends across the globe, followed Breaking News, CNN, ASHAI (Ashai Japan Watch) Shimbun and BBC. And in the midst of this I've kept up with my not-so-little corner of the skating world. I've had my life on RSS feed and my fingers on my iPhone keypad. It has been enlightening, frightening and altogether too sedentary. It has been a life of communication in 140 characters with tinyURL links to a larger world. In many ways, it has been the 2011 version of the Simon and Garfunkel song "Sounds of Silence."

So, here is my 140-character resolution:
i need 2 get a life & stop spending a lifetime on meaningless tweets. I need 2 stop living with #hashmarks and @ signs. I need communication

We'll see how long that lasts. Probably about 140 seconds.

But if the phone rings and my number pops up on the screen, would you be so kind as to answer? I'm craving the sound of a human voice, and a conversation with just one character on the other end of the line.

Thank you for your understanding.