It’s 10:00 – Do you know the temperature of the Organic Pop Tart Neil Patrick Harris is eating?

As always, I’m a bit late on this subject (many, if not all of you have had accounts for awhile), but that’s because of examples like the NPH one above. I thought Twitter was just this place where you’d hear Jon Gosselin say stuff like “went and tried on some more Ed Hardy today and found a sick belt” or would have to endure Lisa Rinna’s “Look at me – do you like my over-injected lips?”. Instead, I found Twitter was a place where you can interact with people, like-minded or otherwise, find out information straight from credible sources (and the people who hack their accounts) and occasionally get instant gratification in the form of @replies from some people you’re a fan of. That’s not all there is to it, but that’s all I’m writing now (until the next. several.unnecessary. paragraphs.)

Twitter has its downsides. 1) For some, it’s addictive. I started out only making an account to tweet towards @websoup; Prior to that, I’d only glanced at a Twitter page twice before to read informative Q&A from a show-runner of a canceled show. Then I won a few easy contests just by replying, and finding all of these people (famous and “regular people”) that made me laugh. Then I started finding more people whose professional work I enjoyed, and replied, getting replies from some, and making it a small game/goal to try to get replies from others. It quickly went from casual checking in to an addiction so bad to the crack that is Twitter, Amy Winehouse told me I was a mess. But, lucky for me, the child services people are also addicted to Twitter, so they’re too busy posting to pay me a neglect visit…

2) Instant isn’t always good – I’ve seen so many people’s tweets taken out of context or jumped on as soon as they say it, and you can’t explain yourself out of things in 140 characters or less (for me, that’s like therapy). So while you can dig yourself into a hole in less than 30 seconds, you may spend quite awhile trying to get out of it. I’m frequently sarcastic towards any and everyone, and did manage to offend someone. Also, “instant” is a double-edged sword – sometimes, as happy as I am to just read the funny commentary of some, not getting a reply from those who do reply to “fans” en masse can feel like a blow to your ego. Or when someone likes what you’ve said, but doesn’t give you the credit. I’ve got a conspiracy theory that Scientologists on Twitter refuse to RT me directly b/c they think my name glorifies a prescription drug… it doesn’t. While I could be wrong, that’s what I tell myself. (And no, it’s not that serious – I don’t cry myself to sleep b/c the man who shook hands with Andy Griffith didn’t say “what’s up”!)

3) This doesn’t go for all, but definitely for some-you may alter your personality to either get a reply or after you’ve gotten one. As my new friend @RebeccaRose2004 says, it just doesn’t feel as fun calling John Mayer a douche after he replies with something nice.

4) There are definitely a fair share of crazies on Twitter (so yes, I fit right in) – I had someone I made the mistake of following *cringe* (not a fan of that term, unless I’m stalking you – I take my stalking seriously) DM me, begging me to tell Michael Rosenbaum something about “love brings us together and covers our shoulders with wings); I’ve had others ask me to reply to someone (that not only was I not following, but that I didn’t think was the real person in the first place – and surprise, surprise, it wasn’t…) and as much as that bothered me, I still did it, even though I don’t delete old posts (unless I immediately realize a typo and redo it) and so it’s there forever, no matter how stupid I sound.

5)You start doing that thing where you change existing words to at a “tw” at the beginning. All my “twomies” know what I’m saying… *shudder*

But things like yesterday’s “Balloon Boy” situation was Twitter at its best. Not only did I get immediate updates, but I got to see my favorite pastime in action – I love seeing how hu-mans act/react in certain situations. It went from “Oh, no I hope…” and the occasional light joke (my favorite – @dgriff13’s “Jiffy Pop” comment) to “That little punk…” and now there’s a fictional @BoyintheBalloon account, and I’m sorry, but I’m a sucker for a fictional character/spoof account.

As you can see, Twitter didn’t help me to stop rambling, but thanks for reading.

*Yes that was seriously something he tweeted about…