Tap, tap, tap

In an old entry I remarked that I don't "do" text messaging. I rarely receive and almost never send them. I haven't had any use for texting since my technologically challenged or resistant friends don't use it either.

I've been using Twitter since the start of this year, but until the film fest began, I accessed it exclusively through the web interface. I wanted to post updates from the fest as I'm seeing the films, so I figured out how to text and transmit the microblog entries to Twitter.

By now I feel like an old pro when it comes to finding the proper buttons on the phone with my left hand. I'm a little annoyed that I've learned how to do it. I consider most texting to be drivel generated by an inability to deal with any unstructured time. Yet here I am filling some of my free moments waiting in line or in the theaters tapping away 140 characters or fewer at a time.

I must confess that my initial reaction upon hearing of Twitter was dismissive, but I enjoy using it. Is it an exercise in narcissism? Maybe at times it is, although like anything else, it comes down to how you use the tool, not that you're using it.

From the content creator perspective, I like the challenge of trying to say something concisely and (hopefully) cleverly. My film fest tweets have been more of the purely informational variety, but they've helped me as I scribble down fuller coverage to be published on my site. It's helpful, for sure, although as I've relearned during this weekend and last, a steno pad and pen do a pretty good job too. That's how I wrote this entry originally.