Twitterive Reflection
Tweeting and using Twitter did make me more mindful and connected to “my place" for my Twitterive project. It did force me to pay attention and made me more observant to my surroundings as well. Before I had my specific place in mind, I randomly tweeted my thoughts and uploaded pictures to my Twitter, hoping one day it would all come together. What I noticed was that I was so much more aware of my surroundings..the sounds, the smells, the appearances and colors schemes. I looked beyond my comfort zone. My senses were definitely heightened due to this Twitterive project. I began to listen more intently, smell deeper, and most of all, just feel. Feel the moment, and wonder what connections could be made from these feelings and heightened senses. I would say that I tweeted slowly at first due to uncertainties, but soon graduated to a steady pace. At first, I wasn’t sure if my tweets were on the right track, but then I just gave in and embraced, it throwing caution to the wind. I really got into the swing of things when I went to the Borgata. I remember tweeting, “imagine the twitterive possibilities.” I had fun taking different pictures, sending them to Twitter for future decoding. I also remember going to my mom’s cemetery to get ideas for my Twitterive. For the first time I really stopped to see what surrounded me while there. I smelled the air, felt the soft breeze, and just sat, silently listening to the birds chirping in the distance. I remember watching a butterfly merrily fly past me, thinking how life lives all around me right now in this place of death.
When I finally decided to have “my place” be my childhood home, I went back to the old neighborhood to explore and reconnect with my old life. Although I do go to the neighborhood many times a year to visit my aunt, I don’t always go up to the dead end to my old house. When I do go, I visit with my heart. This time I opened my heart, my senses, and my eyes. It felt good to reconnect. I noticed the trees and greenery got taller just like the small child in me grew up. I remember driving first, stopping to take pictures, and trying to feel things. It wasn’t really until I parked my car and walked up my street to my old house that I “felt” things happen. I eerily felt as if it were any other day in my youth walking home from school or for dinner. I stopped at my driveway’s edge, wanting so bad to go up the walkway. But I thought I would get into trouble for trespassing so I didn’t. That was a weird feeling for me. I was home, but couldn’t go in. I just stood there looking around, taking it all in, and remembering. While standing in the street, I heard echoes of kickball games, and saw and heard the train pass by. I remembered how that sound would put me to sleep every night. Some things did appear smaller, but isn’t that true when one gets older? The feelings were not lost on my when I had to tweet. I was still able to be present in the moment. In fact, I eagerly tweeted, retracing my old life. I was excited to share my life with my friends. I wanted them to know my “home.” Tweeting about my old house was kind of like an affirmation that I really did live there even though someone else does now.
Creating my Twitterive was a very good learning experience for me. Along the way I took many technological steps to get to my finished product. I was curious and eager to see how this project would unfold. I had used Twitter before in a previous technology class, and I didn’t really see the point of constantly updating one’s status. I mean, who really cares? Hasn’t that already been explored on Facebook? However, I was open and excited to the challenge, and I embraced the opportunity once again to advance myself in the world of technology through tweets and twitpics. The last time I used Twitter for an assignment, I just went to the website every time on my computer. This time I downloaded the Twitter app on my Blackberry. We were mobile! Now through the app, my Twitter would always be with me so I could tweet my thoughts and upload my interesting pictures through Twitpic. Once I got the hang of Twitpic, there was no stopping me. I began to really enjoy the creative end of my Twitterive. Sometimes I felt silly; other times I felt inspired. I wasn’t sure how everything would turn out, but I just kept following Professor Mangini’s directions to tweet and upload pictures, and eventually the story would present itself. It was true, and I eventually saw it begin taking shape. It’s funny, just when I thought my Twiterive was going in one direction, it ended up going in a different one. I found tweeting easy and did it a lot. I knew the more pictures I took and the more tweets I shared, the more material I would have to work with for my final product presented on my Weebly website. I really learned a lot when creating my Twitterive. I learned that technology can be used in an interesting and positive way to promote writing. As we come to the end of our everyday usage of tweets and twitpics, I will continue to use Twitter even after the fact. Now I can/will use it creatively in the future instead of just saying what I’m doing.
In the end, I was grateful for this experience. Although I will always feel “connected” to my place, I truly felt connected at that place and time spent there. It put a smile on my face, and filled up a void I often suffer from. For some reason my old house spoke to me for this project, not quieting down, and tugging at my heartstrings until her story was told.
Tweeting and using Twitter did make me more mindful and connected to “my place" for my Twitterive project. It did force me to pay attention and made me more observant to my surroundings as well. Before I had my specific place in mind, I randomly tweeted my thoughts and uploaded pictures to my Twitter, hoping one day it would all come together. What I noticed was that I was so much more aware of my surroundings..the sounds, the smells, the appearances and colors schemes. I looked beyond my comfort zone. My senses were definitely heightened due to this Twitterive project. I began to listen more intently, smell deeper, and most of all, just feel. Feel the moment, and wonder what connections could be made from these feelings and heightened senses. I would say that I tweeted slowly at first due to uncertainties, but soon graduated to a steady pace. At first, I wasn’t sure if my tweets were on the right track, but then I just gave in and embraced, it throwing caution to the wind. I really got into the swing of things when I went to the Borgata. I remember tweeting, “imagine the twitterive possibilities.” I had fun taking different pictures, sending them to Twitter for future decoding. I also remember going to my mom’s cemetery to get ideas for my Twitterive. For the first time I really stopped to see what surrounded me while there. I smelled the air, felt the soft breeze, and just sat, silently listening to the birds chirping in the distance. I remember watching a butterfly merrily fly past me, thinking how life lives all around me right now in this place of death.
When I finally decided to have “my place” be my childhood home, I went back to the old neighborhood to explore and reconnect with my old life. Although I do go to the neighborhood many times a year to visit my aunt, I don’t always go up to the dead end to my old house. When I do go, I visit with my heart. This time I opened my heart, my senses, and my eyes. It felt good to reconnect. I noticed the trees and greenery got taller just like the small child in me grew up. I remember driving first, stopping to take pictures, and trying to feel things. It wasn’t really until I parked my car and walked up my street to my old house that I “felt” things happen. I eerily felt as if it were any other day in my youth walking home from school or for dinner. I stopped at my driveway’s edge, wanting so bad to go up the walkway. But I thought I would get into trouble for trespassing so I didn’t. That was a weird feeling for me. I was home, but couldn’t go in. I just stood there looking around, taking it all in, and remembering. While standing in the street, I heard echoes of kickball games, and saw and heard the train pass by. I remembered how that sound would put me to sleep every night. Some things did appear smaller, but isn’t that true when one gets older? The feelings were not lost on my when I had to tweet. I was still able to be present in the moment. In fact, I eagerly tweeted, retracing my old life. I was excited to share my life with my friends. I wanted them to know my “home.” Tweeting about my old house was kind of like an affirmation that I really did live there even though someone else does now.
Creating my Twitterive was a very good learning experience for me. Along the way I took many technological steps to get to my finished product. I was curious and eager to see how this project would unfold. I had used Twitter before in a previous technology class, and I didn’t really see the point of constantly updating one’s status. I mean, who really cares? Hasn’t that already been explored on Facebook? However, I was open and excited to the challenge, and I embraced the opportunity once again to advance myself in the world of technology through tweets and twitpics. The last time I used Twitter for an assignment, I just went to the website every time on my computer. This time I downloaded the Twitter app on my Blackberry. We were mobile! Now through the app, my Twitter would always be with me so I could tweet my thoughts and upload my interesting pictures through Twitpic. Once I got the hang of Twitpic, there was no stopping me. I began to really enjoy the creative end of my Twitterive. Sometimes I felt silly; other times I felt inspired. I wasn’t sure how everything would turn out, but I just kept following Professor Mangini’s directions to tweet and upload pictures, and eventually the story would present itself. It was true, and I eventually saw it begin taking shape. It’s funny, just when I thought my Twiterive was going in one direction, it ended up going in a different one. I found tweeting easy and did it a lot. I knew the more pictures I took and the more tweets I shared, the more material I would have to work with for my final product presented on my Weebly website. I really learned a lot when creating my Twitterive. I learned that technology can be used in an interesting and positive way to promote writing. As we come to the end of our everyday usage of tweets and twitpics, I will continue to use Twitter even after the fact. Now I can/will use it creatively in the future instead of just saying what I’m doing.
In the end, I was grateful for this experience. Although I will always feel “connected” to my place, I truly felt connected at that place and time spent there. It put a smile on my face, and filled up a void I often suffer from. For some reason my old house spoke to me for this project, not quieting down, and tugging at my heartstrings until her story was told.
