Do Chickens Tweet?

I must be so challenging to be a seasoned workforce veteran in today's technology-driven society. I would consider myself a spring chicken with enough curiosity to severely maim a cat but sometimes I find myself struggling keep up with the latest technology trend.

Yesterday, after reading the Ad Age e-newsletter that I signed up to have sent daily to my Gmail account, I discovered that General Motors was voted one of the 40 best Twitter brands in 2008.

Martin Retail, the company that I have worked at for more than 7 months, does advertising solely for General Motors and I had NO IDEA that they were on Twitter. In fact, I didn't even know a company or brand could be on Twitter. In fact, I didn't really know WHAT Twitter was beyond another social networking/ blog type of program. So my curiosity kicking in, I decide to investigate Twitter a little further. Al I found was that even after joining Twitter, reading the FAQs, browsing other people's pages and letting people "follow" me, I STILL don't understand.

For a while, I was reluctant to embrace new technology trends, convincing myself they were just fads and telling myself I was too busy to deal with the technological mumbo-jumbo anyway. But then I realized that it was 2007, I was about to enter the "real world" and I hated not being in the know. So over the past year and a half, I've done a complete 180 and constantly look to different types of media to stay up to date on world events, major news, entertainment news, the advertising world, my company, happenings in my town, what's going on with my friends and helpful advice beyond my personal "Megan bubble".

So now I have a Facebook page, a Myspace account (if you can call a name an account), a G-mail account, an "iGoogle" customized homepage and a blog. I sign up to get daily e-newsletters from a variety of organizations and other news sources. I can message my friends via AIM, Yahoo, G-chat, Facebook and by text. My digital camera pictures are stored on my Macbook, I listen to my ipod daily, watch my favorite TV shows online and use my cell as my primary phone. I conduct most of my "business" online – sending gifts, doing my banking, enrolling for classes, dealing with my benefits, etc. Google and Wikipedia are my lifelines when I don't know the answer.

Yet, there are so many technologies that I still don't get, like Twitter. As you can tell from my technology "resume" I am proficient in many areas and regularly use a variety of different types of technologies yet there is still so much I am in the dark about. My only hope for not becoming a laggard is remaining in advertising – a business that forces you to keep up with the latest trends, employs many young, creative thinkers and where "survival of the fittest" rings true.

Despite all the obstacles and hurtles it seems that slowly the veterans are coming around and seem eager to learn, whether their motivation is actually interest or just an attempt to stay afloat.
Maybe tomorrow I'll give Twitter another try. After all if my friend's Mom can have a Facebook page, my dad can get LinkedIn and my boss can send a proposal from his Blackberry while on the toilet maybe there's hope that a spring chicken can learn how to tweet.