Social Media As Aggregator

Although a pile of clothes sits in the corner, my son is not in the bathtub. Instead, a naked body darts passed me chasing after a remote control motorcycle that skitters across the floor. In the excitement and adoration of his new play thing, he has forgotten to be embarrassed of his own nudity. He turns around and stands with his left hand by his side and his right clutching the remote.

Daddy, daddy...I'll never be bored again!

Now I imagine this is how most of my readers picture me after discovering twitter for the first time (Insert appropriate emoticon here-something that expresses eew). But in reality, I was a late adaptor. As much as I wanted to promote my writing, I was reticent to jump into social media. Facebook and twitter were interesting, but really seemed like just a little too much work.

So what changed my mind? After years of collecting journals, going to lectures, and browsing web sites, I realized that there had to be an easier way to stay up to date. Enter Facebook and Twitter.

By far the greatest power of social media is aggregation. Want to be the smartest guy on your block? Easy.

Sign up for Twitter. Find the two hundred most sophisticated people and journals related to what your interested in. Check your feed a few times a day.

And comment when appropriate.