Challenge: 7 Days of ONLY Tweeting via SMS

The original idea around Twitter was “to have a dispatch service that connects us on our phones using text.” (140 Characters by @Dom Sagolla) Before API, thats applications programming interface, you could tweet directly through the website or by sending a text message. Now that we ALL have smartphones, we use apps like @TweetDeck and @Echofon – or the desktop clients. Or we tweet from one of the other thousands of 3rd-party applications available. 

But for a short while back when texting meant T9, SMS was the way to tweet. I decided that for one week I would give up tweeting from Twitter.com, Echofon for iPhone, and the TweetDeck desktop client; I was going to tweet via SMS for an entire week. 

Anyone can update their timeline through text message (update Settings > Mobile). And everything you need to know about effectively tweeting via SMS is here. But could it actually be done for 1 week? My daily log is as follows:

Day 1: This is hard. I’m getting a butt load of texts. “Stats” is a nice feature. I hate that I can’t view @replies.

Day 2: Aside from the nearly 50 texts (timeline updates) before 9am (mtn time), this has finally come in handy. I can easily turn “OFF” my notifications and work on my paper.

Day 3: iPhone’s don’t count characters but I’m finally getting a feel for what 100 to 120 characters looks like. It was nice being able to focus on my paper without being distracted every 2 seconds with a text. 

Day 3 (later): I cheated. In retaliation against my paper, I logged onto Twitter.com. #c8fail

Day 4: Still had notifications turned off. Didn’t tweet much today.

Day 5: I KNOW I’M MISSING OUT. Am I addicted to my timeline? Tried RTing more today – you can only RT somebody’s most recent tweet – meh. Having notifications on prevented me from napping.

Day 6: Realizing that I’m not tweeting as much and of value. Missing the inspiration from my timeline?

Day 7: N/A

I cheated on the evening of Day 6. And by cheated, I mean, I gave in. I don’t think this says anything about my dedication in general, but rather, my dedication to Twitter – and that’s a good thing, right? 

Note: There are a few points I’d like to make, whether you determine these as positives or negatives of SMS tweeting, is up to you.

1. SMS tweeting results in a smaller timeline. You have to individually and manually turn on the users that you want notifications from. Pro: staying up-to-date with fewer, and more meaningful, users. Con: missing out on potentially valuable information in your timeline.
2. No trending topics and hashtags. Pro: TT’s – “out of sight, out of mind.” Con: #hashtags can be tweeted but not viewed.
3. No @replies. This really drives me crazy. Pro: less distractions – the only way a user can contact you is through DM. Con: it makes responding to users and conversing with users nearly impossible.

The quote in this article is from 140 Characters: A Style Guide for the Short Form by Dom Sagolla, co-creator of Twitter. (@Dom and @thebook)

I am a GREYMELEON

Sooner or later I’m going to write a tribute to this social networking site because thanks to Twitter, today I came across Tumblr. You can check out my Tumblr page here. Tumblr is micro blogging without the Facebook status qualities of Twitter and looks more like normal blogging. You can easily post text, pictures, quotes, inks, chats, audio, and video and the iPhone application is so simple, easy, and fast. I’ve been playing around with Tumblr all night. 

I’m going to continue to explore this and then update this post accordingly. My eyes hurt from staring at the computer all night so I’m going to finish this post mañana. I’m going to postpone the lucid dreaming post for a while and probably substitute with a post on my weakness: Twitter.

I’ve added some new links. Adios