Day 40: PNME - Convention or Crackhouse?

It's Day 40 of Social Networking Rehab and I am a twittering mess -- literally and figuratively. I feel like I have taken 12 steps forward... and 40 steps backward! What happened to my will power? My discipline? My text messaging bill???

WHO EVER HEARD OF ONTARIO CALIFORNIA? OBVIOUSLY TWITTER USERS!

I met very few Canadians in Ontario, but there were Twittizens everywhere. It was inescapable. People were not asking for business cards or phone numbers, they were clinking their Blackberries and iPhones together and asking "Who are you on Twitter?" If I had a nickel for every time I heard someone say "@" I'd be rich enough to buy the Twitter team some servers that actually work! As I said in this recent Twittergram, attending the the Podcast and New Media Expo was like being in a Crackhouse for Twitter users. It was insane! People strolled aimlessly through the halls of the convention center, thumbing away on their portable device of choice as if it was a divining rod leading them to their next destination. And it WAS! If you followed the popular Twitter streams you knew EXACTLY where everyone was, and what they were doing... what they were eating, drinking, who they were talking to, what they were wearing, who they were stalking, who was stalking them, where they were going to be in five minutes, in ten minutes, a week from Tuesday. The information flowing through the Twitter stream at PNME was flooding the banks of my sanity!

WHAT'S AN ADDICT TO DO???

Seeking refuge I ducked into one of the conference sessions. The Steve Garfield, Vlogger extraordinaire, was standing at the podium, about to give a dissertation on creating, editing, and posting your own Video Blog. Perfect. I could relax, free of all the bad influences of the Twitter enablers. I let out a well deserved sigh of relief, forgot about Twitter, and sat back in my chair to listen and watch a master display his craft.

NOT SO MUCH!

What does Steve do? He uses TWITTER as his subject! Yes kids, to demonstrate making your own video, the venerable @stevegarfield decided to create "TWITTER: THE MOVIE!" live, from the PNME vlogging session. And better yet, like lightning striking twice, Steve glances out into the crowd and picks ME to be one of the "actors" in his Twitter production. Alanis Morissette, are you listening? THIS is IRONIC! A recovering Social Networking Addict, who's drug of choice is Twitter, is randomly chosen to star in "TWITTER: THE MOVIE!"

No wonder my 28 days are now up to 40!!!





Photo Credit: Dima - Fotolia.com