Tweeting the Un-Tweetable
Ever tweet something that you shouldn’t have tweeted? Ever tweet something and then, perhaps a few moments later, scramble back online to delete it?
I know I have… more than a few times.
Twitter has changed the way that we interact and engage with others; it’s changed the way we message and communicate. And maybe, just maybe, it’s challenged us to “think twice” before saying something.
Twitter has made me far more cognizant of what I say, especially online. There’s almost nothing sacred anymore on the web (and if you find something, please let me know… or tweet it to me).
It could just be one of the few unintended spiritual consequences that Twitter has provided for me. A strange thought, indeed.
Buzz it!
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16 Responses to “Tweeting the Un-Tweetable”
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Interesting dilemma sometimes… There are things that you can do (movie choices, social drinking, fill-in-the-blank) in your own home that you MAY not feel comfortable doing in a group of people from your church. Maybe even more to the point… There are some things I choose NOT to do publicly at all because I am in ministry, and I would not want to send a confusing message to someone with more conservative values. It's the Romans 14 command to the meat-eaters not to cause the not-meat-eaters to stumble when exercising their freedom. Now that I am living much more transparently on-line (tweets/status updates/etc.), I also have to be aware of what we tweet… even when in our own home. I'm processing all of this right now. Where before I may have felt a bit more freedom @ home, NOW I may consciously choose NOT to tweet something… and then I wonder if my goal of living transparently is being undercut. Hmmmmm… Thanks for the thought provoking post John.
I have many of my students who use twitter.. and they all try to follow me.. I block them for this exact reason… basically everyone I follow on twitter is in ministry, and shares my frustrations, so I can tweet to them when I'm frustrated about ministry things, annoyed with a student, whatever it may be.. and, while my students usually know when I'm upset with them, I'd rather they didn't see something of the things that I say.. maybe thats wrong.. but, twitter is a sort of escape for me.. its a place where I can just say stuff, get feed back, and not hurt someone who is close to me..
The only time I can think of when I hurried off to delete a message was when I forgot to add a hashtag.. maybe I meant for a tweet to also go to my facebook status with the #fb hashtag.. so I'll tweet it again then go to twitter,com and delete the first one..
To steal a line from Horton the elephant…
"I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful, one hundred percent!"
While that may seem like a funny concept, its also a scriptural one.. in Matthew 5:37 we are told to "let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one."
I think it was Anne Jackson who said, "Before tweeting, ask yourself the question – 'would I say this in front of my grandmother?'"
If so, tweet away I guess!
sure. it's a tough one. there's no easy solution, that's for sure.
but they can still see your tweets though, right?
i'd say a lot in front of my grandmother and not my pastor….!
I know that's true. The worst of it is that even if you delete it from online… it might have already gone into people's APIs (TweetDeck, and the like)… and be unstoppable.
As a person that has numerous Twitter accounts… it's a delicate balance, especially for the accounts of business/ministry. Got to be sure of what you're saying. Don't want to make your company look like a grammatical idiot…
grammar… FTW!
My favorite example of these are phantom DM messages that seem to be made public…love those.
Carlos had an epic phantom DM that only a few of us saw (I think) and was deleted quickly.
But I have done this before myself.
People actually read your tweets? oh dear
lol
I have posted a few tweets in anger – sorry to say. Even a Freudian slips – "I am so bust" instead of "I am so busy"
But I think it is good to not only think first but also to read before submitting, just to be sure. With so few words to express yourself misinterpretation can happen :O
haha! \”i am so bust\” sounds like something from the 80's.
My problem is that I post things out of context.
Ex. There is a restaurant that my wife and I enjoy called BJ'S… I'm sure you can see the problem.
context on the internet rarely exists.
Dude I've totally tweeted things I shouldn't have… And I agree that twitter has made me more aware of how I interact with people in the "real world" as well.