Walter caught this article on CNN.com just a few hours ago about a University of California - Berkeley student, named James Karl Buck, who used Twitter to reach out to friends to let them know that he had been arrested in Mahalla, Egypt, while covering an anti-government protest. Friends on his Twitter network secured a lawyer for the student while he continued to send updates from his phone while he was detained. He was released a few days later and is currently working to locate and free the translator that was arrested with him.
This is a fascinating story in and of itself, however, it also underscores the power of Twitter. At the same time, I believe that it is critical that people avoid using Twitter to send useless information out regarding their whereabouts (i.e. “I’m in line at Starbucks waiting for my coffee” or “I am on a Jet Blue flight to Boston, Seat 22E”). I have been following quite a few people on Twitter and I am often frustrated by the pointless ‘tweets’ that they send out. (Yes, if I was in middle school, I’d like to know that my BFF was at the Mall buying a 50 Cent CD, however, I’m talking about grown business men and women – however immature.)
If James had been a frivolous tweeter, his one-word tweet “Arrested” might have gone unnoticed by his friends. Although Twitter makes it easy to tell your network of friends and colleagues what you are doing, at any given moment, maybe you should wait until you are doing something noteworthy, or people will start to tune out your tweets.
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