Twitter Is The New Water Cooler
Posted on Jul 18, 2010 in Freelance Life, Productivity, Stuff I Like | 6 comments
I’ve said over and over again that the thing I miss the most about having a 9 to 5 is the interaction with other people. I’m a loner by nature so I’ve always been able to entertain myself for hours without others. When I worked with the public every day, I always looked forward to my alone time where I didn’t have to talk to anyone about anything. Now, I can be alone as much as I want . . . which apparently is actually too much. 
I sometimes think that people who work normal jobs must live out The Office every day.
I haven’t worked in an office in so long that I often think that everybody’s job is just like The Office. As wrong as I know that is, I still kinda expect my friends to spend their employed days playing pranks and falling in love with the receptionist. So of course, I get a major case of the “the-grass-must-be-greeners.” And I’m stuck here watching cable, working in my PJs and setting my own hours. Yes, I realize that everybody wants to do what I’m doing. But I want to play games in the parking lot when the temp sets the alarms off making a snack in the microwave!
But of course, I know that’s not how it really is. I’m fortunate to be where I am in my life. And I can’t think of anything that could make me willing re-enter the 9 to 5 world. Certainly not the memories of water cooler gossip and antics.
Enter Twitter.
At first, like so many of my friends, I didn’t get Twitter. I didn’t understand why I would want everybody to see what I was tweeting. I didn’t get the 140 word count. Or why any of this was useful at all. And then later when I thought I got it, I got it wrong. The point of Twitter is interaction, not monologues. Unless you’re Ashton Kutcher or Oprah, nobody wants to hear your stream of consciousness.
But then I realized I could have conversations with people across the world about anything at any time on Twitter. That means that I could tweet my thoughts and hear what others had to say about it. I could tweet links to my work and my blog and the stuff I thought was interesting. And read what other people were thinking and talking about. And retweet that to others, spreading it along. It was like being at a cocktail party with the most interesting people possible and having thirty side conversations at once.
Once I got the conversation part, the rest was easy.
Twitter is my water cooler because as I write every day from my home office, I can connect to the other freelancers doing their own thing too. I know when they’re having a bad day or just signed a new client. Twitter tells me who wrote a new blog post or what everyone’s reading today. Somebody will tweet an inspirational quote and we’ll all retweet it so we can get some encouragement to keep going. When I come up for air from my work, I can tweet about what crazy mess I see outside my window and get a response from the peanut gallery. Twitter is the social media equivalent of poking my head over a cubicle and saying “So what’s going on over there?”
I have no idea how many followers I have or how many people I am following because that’s really not the point. I try to follow and tweet with interesting people who like to laugh as much as I do. I unfollow people who tweet only their links or affiliate links or do it often enough to annoy me. I’ve found a great group of fellow freelancers that I can count on for support and suggestions. And even though I’m sitting at home alone working on a project for a client, I feel like I’m smack dab in the middle of the funniest, wackiest workplace on earth.
Now all I need is a catchy theme song and I’m set.
And what you about you? Do you miss the office interactions you used to have before freelance life? And if you do, how do you combat it?
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- Freelance Island | Diary of A Mad Freelancer - [...] so you have been convicted of freelance crimes. (Abusing Twitter. Not having a website. Not changing out of your ...
Haha. I do the same thing! And I'll find you a catchy-theme song. It's another one of my services. :p
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I've gone through several rounds of love-hate with Twitter (currently, it rates a "strong like"), and you're right on with the water cooler analogy, as well as the head-over-the-cubicle move. Not enough time in the day to hang with people who bore or irritate me, but if you can make me laugh or think, I'm all in!
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I know you will, Leslie! I'm looking for something catchy and quirky. And if you can get Lady GaGa or P!nk to sing it, I'd be really, really grateful.
My recent post Twitter Is The New Water Cooler
I feel the same way. The problem with having a traditional job is that the boss doesn't hire people based on how much they amuse me.
My recent post Twitter Is The New Water Cooler
I like the Title "Twitter Is The New Water Cooler" 20 year ago it was also near the smoker corner that hot issues and gossips were discussed. Since I quit the corporate world in for becoming a consultant and coach I quited smoking too just like that , cold turkey. So yes Twitter is definitively a better alternative for wired workers.
You know, I've noticed that about smoking. I've never been a smoker but I've grown up with smokers, nearly every man I've ever dated smoked and my husband smokes now. I always felt a little left out when everyone would go on the smoke breaks together. So I started taking "non-smoker breaks" with them to the breeze take a breather and shoot. Which I think was a much better choice than taking up smoking, which is what a coworker did. I ran into her a few years later. She's still smoking!