Saturday, March 24, 2018

To Blog or Tweet - Why is that Even a Question?

Aloha, everybody, 

My buddy Zippy Zappy has been recently ruminating over the differences and benefits of blogging about cards vs tweeting about them. I'm not gonna rehash here, as he already did a great job of breaking it all down in his post. I'm just gonna drop my perspective on leading life as a double agent - as both bloggerista and twitter dude.

(Also, as an homage to ZZ's post, I'll be dropping in some unrelated scans from an old-time Beckett that Dennis from Too Many Verlanders sent to me) 



As ZZ said, the biggest difference between the two arenas are how much you can say...errrr, write. 

My blog has run for a few years, and as the time went on, I found myself blogging less often. A couple of times I even did the hiatus thing and disappeared for a month or two. Part of the reason was this self-imposed feeling of responsibility to blog regularly, and to fill enough space in an entertaining way. 



Then came my life as a writer for a Dodgers blog. That became an additional 1,000 words I had to write per week, and I just found it to be too much sometimes. I don't know how Night Owl does it. He's my hero; he's knocking out like 5,000 words a day! Whew! 

Then along came Twitter. I resisted it for a long time, but once I checked it out, I was hooked. Messages are short and sweet (I preferred the old 140 character limit) and you can drop in pics or gifs. Perfect for a hit and run guerrilla-fighter like me. 



The other great point about Twitter (or not so great, depending on personal and political preferences) is you can drop tweets on any and all topics. My feed tends to be much less about cards, but plenty about the Dodgers and baseball in general, art, photography, funny stuff, and yes - the part Night Owl really doesn't like - politics. 

I don't mean to pick on my friend N.O., he's just an example. Some folks want to escape debate and friction on these platforms, and that's a valid position. Believe it or not, I try to hold back on my political tweeting, but some subjects grab me by the throat so hard, that I just can't ignore them. I've lost some twitter followers because of my politics, and that's their prerogative. 

Last time I checked, N.O. still gets my tweets, so I'm lucky enough that my friend keeps me around and just sweeps past what he doesn't want to get involved in. 



Speaking of being involved, Twitter has really opened up my connections with some of you out there. As ZZ said, he and I talk much more over in Twitterlandia than we ever did in the Blogosphere. I'm also in much more contact and making better friendships with Peter K., Jon from Penny Sleeves, Commish Bob, Mark H, Tony L, Gavin, my hermano Wes, Matt, Julie, and I'm sure a couple of others who, I apologize, slip my mind right now. 

I'm a happy double agent. It works for me. 

Aloha! 

16 comments:

  1. "I'm a happy double agent. It works for me."

    Yeah, this is about the same for me lol. Nice post.

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    1. Thanks for the compliment and the inspiration to write this.

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  2. I'm still trying to get used to the Twitter, and while there are many things about it that I don't like -- especially all the arguing over politics and politicians which seems to always devolve into name calling (I try to avoid all that)-- there's also some good to be had as well, like for example, all the wonderful art and photography on your feed, which more often than not... is stuff that I would never come across otherwise. And I too have been able to talk more with some of the other bloggers on there, which is something that I really enjoy doing as well.

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    1. Thanks, man. I enjoy sharing it, and I'm glad others enjoy checking it out as much as me.

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  3. I think you do a great job as a double agent yourself. You cover a little of everything on the blog and twittet

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    1. Thanks for the compliment, Mark. The scattershot approach seems to be my niche.

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  4. Nice post. I have spent less and less time on Twitter. It has become way to political and too many people drooling over "sick hits".

    To each their own I guess.

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    1. Yup. There seems to be at least two types of collectors on Twitter - the ones who collect bc of cardboard love (that's me) and those who chase the hits and use it as an extension of ebay. I tend to stay away from those folk.

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    2. The hit chasers / flavor of the month collecting would burn me out hard. I have no idea how they keep up the $$$. There is no way they are actually getting their money back.

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  5. Work has kept me busier this past year; a promotion = more hours, stealing away hobby time. My heart belongs to the blog community but Twitter has provided an opportunity to be among my blog pals when I have only a few minutes to spare. I prefer Twitter over FB because it is less personal. My feed is 95% baseball and 5% funny animal videos and spiritually themed tweets. You and I have much in common politically and spiritually. Getting to know you through twitter is growing our friendship. I am enjoying that aspect of twitter - learning much about my blog pals personalities and humor. Thanks for this post. Our blog community will always be home base for me, unless I'm kicked off the island. {8^p}

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    1. Ha! I can't ever see you getting kicked off the blogging island. You're a good blogger, trader, friend. Hehe...I do love those animal vids

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  6. Twitter for the most part is just an extension of my blog. Kind of nice sometimes to carry on a more detailed conversation that Blogger isn't really conducive to.

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    1. Aha...that's hitting it on the head. An extension of the blog. Right!

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