Wedding Songbirds: On the Humanity of Twitter
Friday, 7 March 2008 Clay Burell 
Print This Post
For anybody who doesn’t understand the beauty of Twitter, just look at the warmth and wonder of these people refreshing my day with smiles at 3 minute intervals. I have never learned so much, never done so much, and never smiled so much all the while, as I have done since my first tweet last summer.
Skeptics and traditionalists can question the humanity of the relationships on Twitter, can raise their brows and wrinkle their noses until their faces reach muscle failure – and I can understand. I was that way when I started too.
But no more.
Thanks to all of you for injecting warmth and spirit into this cold mix of plastic, aluminum, and ones and zeros. You’ve simply added global beauty to the natural beauty of the local.
What I don’t get about the skeptics is this: they seem to accept television, telephones, automobiles, and other forms of 20th century technology without question. None of those technologies allow the person-to-person relating that Twitter, especially, but really all forms of the read/write/relate/create web, do.
I’ve simply never had such a community of like-minded people, or the minutest fraction of it, in my life Before Twitter. Sure, I’ve had thousands of flesh and blood humans around me daily, but not like minds.
I was thinking about how, when I was a small child, I believed that inside that big box dominating the living room were real people, wee homunculi named Lucy, Ricky, Fred, and Ethel, and Moe, Larry, and Curly.
I always wished they would talk back to me. They didn’t, of course. They weren’t real.
The people inside that Twitbin image above are not homunculi – they’re very big people all around the world. And they do talk back. We all help each other with resources and favors, ideas and commiserations, gems of minimalist wit and wisdom. It’s all so very, very real to me.
I just wanted to put that out there. Because these last few weeks of winter and wedding planning, of professional experimentation and job negotiation, of life in general have been very, very, hairy. But because of my network, they’ve also been magical in a way that approaches – and silly as it may sound, I mean this literally – a sort of digital, secular mysticism: full-bodied spirits around this globe all mingling, disembodied, in this wild new aether.
So yeah. Call me sentimental, but cut me a break. I’m getting married before the next sunset, so I’ve got license to wax whatever.
Wax I will: You’re all wonderful.
If any of you want to watch the wedding, I’m Ustreaming it. My parents will be able to attend that way, seeing their son’s wedding in Seoul from their living room in rural Alabama, U.S.A. The rest of you are invited too. 5 p.m. GMT+9, Saturday, 8 March 2008 – tomorrow!
I’ll be posting the URL to the Ustream as soon as I finish making the channel and learning how to run it.
- On the Uses and ‘Abuses’ of Twitter (or, “Digital Gymnastics”)
- Open Thread: What Do We Mean by “Self-Promotion” on Twitter?
- A Little (Twitter-Inspired) Sonnet
- Screencast Quickie: Using Firefox Addon "MeasureIt" to Size a Twitter Group Badge for Our Professional Development Ning
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
No. 1 — March 7th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Really wonderful commentary on our humanity. It’s a joy to share in this happy time from afar
And I wish you both a wonderful day! From over here, it looks like you are glowing
Carolyn Foote’s last blog post..On hope
Reply
No. 2 — March 8th, 2008 at 12:13 am
It’s been a pleasure getting to know you this and I really enjoyed reading this post. Take a deep breath and enjoy your day tomorrow. Thanks to you and your bride for sharing this very personal moment in your lives via your photos and Ustream. There can be a much deeper connection than “What are you doing” on Twitter.
Many years of happiness to you both!
Ann Oro’s last blog post..Monsters Are Coming
Reply
No. 3 — March 8th, 2008 at 1:27 am
I have been following the preparations now for a couple of months so I’m so excited for you! I just hope I can figure out my local time to yours so I don’t miss the wedding!
Pat’s last blog post..Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 03/07/08
Reply
No. 4 — March 8th, 2008 at 7:11 am
Clay,
I’m hoping you were getting some rest when I sent my last Tweet re. the nuptials:
“@cburell In my time zone, the clocks “spring ahead” this weekend, so your wedding is at a much more reasonable 4am. LOL Love you both.”
If I can drag my old bones out of bed, I’ll be watching. You are two lucky people to have found each other.
diane
P.S.
@ssandifer and I are counting on a dollar dance. Seems to be a Cajun-Italian-Irish-Polish custom which we hope to introduce to Korea.
diane’s last blog post..What Do They Do All Day?
Reply
No. 5 — March 8th, 2008 at 9:07 am
Clay wrote:
The people inside that Twitbin image above are not homunculi – they’re very big people all around the world. And they do talk back. We all help each other with resources and favors, ideas and commiserations, gems of minimalist wit and wisdom. It’s all so very, very real to me.
Clay,
First, I join everyone in sending digital well wishes your way! I might even throw a little rice around at 3 AM, depending on my state of conciousness…
I also thank you for putting into words so eloquently the feelings that I have about the digital peers that I’ve discovered in the past several years. I can never seem to convince my “flesh-and-blood” peers that the work I do online is of great value….
But it is! I learn from you—and hundreds of others—even though I’ve never met you. It’s about likeminded individuals, and until I fell into the Teacher Leaders Network (another virtual community I’m a part of) and until I discovered the Twitterverse, those individuals were few and far between.
Now, they’re a few clicks of the keys away all the time.
And that’s cool.
Anyway….Rock right on! And my best to you and your new bride!
Bill
Bill Ferriter’s last blog post..Carnival of Education Posted. . .
Reply
No. 6 — March 8th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Felicidades! Congrats! Hope you both have a twitterlicious wedding, honeymoon and life together.
Frank’s last blog post..tHURSDAY tHUMOR, Part 2
Reply
No. 7 — March 8th, 2008 at 9:43 am
Well, I’m a little late to the game, but judging by your above screenshot of twitbin, we have a lot of the same friends
I’m now following you on twitter and look forward to learning from you! I’m a twitterholic and have defended my right to tweet many times lately 
Good luck with the nuptials, it sounds like our mutual friend @dmcordell will be going out of her way to be there………….
Kate’s last blog post..Wiki Wiki – What to Do?
Reply
No. 8 — March 8th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Kate,
Not so much going out of my way as getting out of my bed!
Didn’t realize you hadn’t “met” Clay before. Your homework this weekend is to investigate Schooliness. You’ll love the open thread discussions.
diane
diane’s last blog post..What Do They Do All Day?
Reply
No. 9 — March 8th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
All the best my friend, I drank coffee after 6PM and had a nap so chances are I’ll be up at 2AM for the big event.
You are making a reality one small portion of the Cisco Human Network video I’m so fond of “…where a wedding is captured, and recaptured, again and again…..Welcome to the Human Network”.
Dean Shareski’s last blog post..7 year old researchers
Reply
No. 10 — March 8th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Best wishes from Adelaide, Australia. It’s all happening online at the moment. Ken Rodoff becomes a parent to twins less than 17 hours ago and now a U-Streamed wedding from Korea! No wonder I feel left behind sometimes.
Congratulations to you and your new bride, Clay.
Have a great day.
Graham Wegner’s last blog post..Become An LA20 Blog Coach
Reply
No. 11 — March 9th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Twitter crashes MacOS 9 and its Internet Explorer. Stupid iMacs.
I figure that if there’s any time I could have on Twitter during the school day, that’s time I should be walking around and monitoring my students’ work.
That isn’t time I should be on Twitter.
Benjamin Baxter’s last blog post..The Best Assassins Have Middle Names
Reply
No. 12 — March 9th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
@Benjamin Baxter: What an odd comment. Seems composed under the influence of what I fondly call “a case of ass.” I’ve done the same at times.
But if you read the post above, you’ll note there is no talk at all about Twitter at school, or Twitter as work.
Hope your day improves.
Clay Burell’s last blog post..An Invitation
Reply
No. 13 — March 9th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
@ALL: Hm. This thread sort of serves as supporting evidence of the ideas above. Things are so shifting now – work, home, friendship, space, time, rules – all changing so fast.
But this network is a good change.
No time for more now. Have to settle back in after the wedding.
Clay Burell’s last blog post..An Invitation
Reply