My sister is painting her kitchen. My brother is drawing cartoon robots.
Do I need to know these things?
No.
Do I love hearing them?
Absolutely.
They live over a 1000 miles away from me and almost 250 miles from each other. The rest of my family and many good friends are far away as well.
I call when I can, but it’s hard to catch people when they’re able to talk. When I do leave a message, I’ll often say not to feel obligated to call back, just that I was thinking of them and wish them well.
I could email, but emailing someone to ask what’s new is like assigning an essay that’s due in a week.
How do I know what my sister is painting or my brother is drawing?
They post their updates publicly on the Internet.
They don’t require that I create an account to see what they’ve posted. I can keep track of what’s new and what I’ve read already by subscribing to their posts in Google Reader or any other RSS reader.
“What about people who want to know about the little things that happen in your life?” >–Twitter in Plain English
Twitter is where my brother and sister happen to post their updates, but a multitude of services could easily step in to take its place. Provided the service allows access to posts without a password and (hopefully) keeps the advertising to a minimum, it’s ok in my book. The ability to subscribe to updates via an RSS feed is a definite plus.
One of the greatest advantages of posting to a “microblog” like Twitter is that there is no pressure to say anything profound. Posting about a flat tire would likely be regarded as minutia by the Internet at large, but would garner sympathy from your family. The world may not care that you hiked a mountain, but your loved ones would find this interesting.
When posting anything online, one should be mindful of the privacy of others and themselves, but little details about your life can make a big impact on the people who love you.