Editor's Note
By Jillian Melnyk, Editor
Tweet, tweet, tweet! Woah! What is that? No, this month's "Editor's Note" is not a remake of the Hitchcock classic "The Birds". I'm talking about Twitter!
Unless you've been living in a cave for the past few months you've
heard about the social networking sites that are on the tips of everyone's tongues these days – Twitter, Facebook, MySpace... A few weeks ago I started to wonder about this whole "Twitter thing". What is it? Why is it so popular? And, what's the point? As a loyal Facebook user I was a little wary about adding yet ANOTHER site (i.e. addiction) to my repertoire. I knew just what it meant: One more thing to update, more time wasted online, and, of course, less privacy – was I ready to tell everyone
where I'm going and what I'm doing 24/7? But then, one rainy afternoon, I took the plunge – I joined Twitter. And in that same afternoon I also made a page for Genesee Valley Parent. After about a week of being in the network I realized something: The internet is AMAZING. Duh, you may say, you've known that since 2000. The first thing I did when joining Twitter for GVP was to "follow" other magazines like ours – members of Parenting Publications of America. Now we're following nearly 50 other regional family magazines, and I must say, what an amazing resource! Links to free coupons, up-to-date articles, hip tips, interesting blog posts – they were all tweeting those topics. And what's best, I can retweet their posts and share the same great info with our readers here in Rochester. So, that's just what I'm doing, and more! I encourage you to "follow" us on Twitter (www.twitter.com/GVParentMag) and you'll be privy to all this amazing parenting information that we dig up for you from some of the best parenting experts and resources across the country (plus, some of the latest content just from us). I'm hip, I'm young, I'm trendy – or at least so I like to think. But with that said, I'm still consistently blown away by the great information available online for families and how open everyone is to sharing their parenting experiences – we're becoming more educated and better informed by the second! It’s amazing how easy it is to be connected and stay up-to-date. Wow, parenthood is changing! Enjoy your summer & see you online!
Jillian
This column appeared originally in the July 2009 issue of Genesee Valley Parent Magazine.