Completely Connected or In Praise of Twitter

I was more engaged with the election last night than I have ever been in the past. My increased connectivity is due completely to Twitter.

Before writing this post I was going to talk about how connected I was last night for election coverage: watching CTV news on the television, following the polls on my netbook on CBC, and tweeting and reading tweets on my android phone, but then I realized that wouldn't be very honest.

Indeed I did start the night with all three devices running and plugged in, but both the television and the netbook became unnecessary, even boring. Twitter ruled them all. The riding by riding updates were coming from the people I follow, and the commentary from the citizens on twitter was much more interesting than the political pundits and guest speakers on the news channels.

The most important reason I was engaged, however, was the fact that I was adding to and actively taking part in the conversation. When I had thoughts I wanted to share I put them out there into the twitterverse. Not many people read them, but I know some did. My friends did, some random followers of mine did, and a few people that were able to keep up with #elxn41 also read my tweets.

When the network I follow came to a lull I was able to look in on #elxn41 and find more people to follow and comment with. I have never been so engaged, it was exciting. At one point my wife and I sat out on the patio in my backyard and I would read her the tweets as they were coming in, it led to some fantastic discussion. I was able to connect with my brother (@bangsht) in Victoria (@elizabethmay's riding), and he ended up calling me for the first time in months because he wanted to discuss my tweets further.

There were so many ultra-negative comments about the impending gestapo state led by the evil Mr. Harper who had been elected by stupid Canadians. I even got involved in a twitter war with a particularly rude and insulting woman.

I only have this left to say to @susanfelicity, I cannot believe your disdain for your fellow Canadians. You must accept that in a democracy you will not always be happy with the results. Many intelligent Canadians voted Conservative for valid and legitimate reasons. Calling people that don't agree with you ignorant, stupid, and idiot simply because they do not share your views is inherently anti-democratic, and quite frankly, it is exactly that kind of closed-minded combative attitude that is responsible for the election of a conservative majority.

Last word for @steven_greene in that twitter war.

Twitter is changing politics and current events. Look at the news for Osama bin Laden and the Canadian election as the justification for creating student twitter accounts and promoting the use of twitter in the classroom.