I tweet, do you?

Now, in my everyday life, I come up against a lot of resistance to Twitter, which I just do not understand. People tell me, “What do I care about if you just went to the grocery store or ate something delicious?” I just want to stomp my feet and yell, “You do not understand Twitter! The purpose is not to tell others what you ate for lunch or about your latest trip to the bathroom!” But then I struggle to explain to them what, exactly, it is about.

I admit it—I love Twitter. Much more than Facebook, actually, although Facebook does have its uses. Why Twitter? Well, because Twitter makes me aware of things. Twitter has been the way I’ve learned breaking news stories. (Thanks, Trending Topics.)

• Twitter is a democracy. Celebs often interact with us plebes. You can talk to anyone (though they may not talk back). People who don’t know you can follow you, just because they’re interested in what you have to say, even if you’d never be “friends” on Facebook.
• You can get instantaneous feedback. You can ask your followers a question and get tons of responses, like when I asked for opinions on where I should go in Italy.
• Hashtags. I love using hashtags, which are just words or phrases preceded by #. If you add # before something, it’s instantly searchable. My favorite hashtags? #IUBB, #Spain, #ESL, and #learnSpanish. Apparently, some people really like #TTOT, or Travel Talk on Tuesday, where you can ask/answer questions about travel every Tuesday at certain times.
• Education. I love linguistics. This is no secret. I follow a lot of linguistics blogs on Twitter, and I’m always to find something interesting to read.
• Pure entertainment. Sometimes I get bored. Luckily, I have a smartphone and Twitter! This is a winning combination for curing boredom. I just hop on Twitter, laugh at my friend’s tweets, and write something inane, hoping someone will gratify me by replying.

Those are my reasons for using Twitter. What are yours? I’ll leave you with some of my favorite Tweeters (I’ll spare you my #IUBB tweeters, as that’s not this blog’s audience, but rest assured I’m wholly obsessed with the Hoosiers):

• @CyLesVida: Castilla y León es Vida tweets all about one of my favorite comunidades, Castilla y León. I love keeping up with the news. Plus, they retweeted me!
• @LongReads: Long Reads tweets out “the best long-form stories on the web.” I save these on my Kindle and read them when I have a free moment.
• @WinesfromSpain: Wines from Spain tries to raise awareness about the deliciousness of Spanish wine in the US. Although I need no convincing, I love reading about Spanish wine nonetheless!
• @Fundeu: Español Urgente is where I learn matices of the Spanish language. Sometimes I disagree with their prescriptivist perspective, but that’s just how Spain approaches the Spanish language nowadays.
• @GeoffNunberg: Geoff Nunberg is the resident linguist for NPR’s Fresh Air, and I always love his segments. I am hopelessly addicted to linguistic blogs, so this just feeds my addiction.
• @GuiriBullshit: Guiri Bullshit is hilarious if you’ve ever worked as an auxiliar de conversación. As they say in their self-description, “Over 2,000 Americans go to Spain every year to teach English in public schools. Far less of them have a clue.” Truth. But they don’t tweet enough!

Of course, there are always my friends. I want to include you all … but I can’t!