Still a News Junkie
I’ll admit it — I’m a bit of a news junkie. Local, national, international, business, technology, money — it doesn’t matter. If it’s news, I’m reading it.
My news habit started in much younger days — back when my family received a daily newspaper — and I would read every page in the evening. Later, my habit evolved into reading multiple news websites every day.
Twitter Becoming the ‘New CNN’
I remember when CNN was the best way to find the latest news, at any time of the day or night. Today, I consume my news via Twitter. And I’m not alone. Nearly one-in-ten adults in the U.S. (8 percent) get news through Twitter, according to a Pew Research Center report.
Throughout the day I’m reading updates – keeping up with breaking local and national events along with traffic updates and weather alerts and industry news. On my desktop, I use TweetDeck, which provides a constantly running, multiple-account feed I use for managing our clients’ social media accounts. It also allows me to follow a variety of events and trending topic hashtags that capture my interest. Otherwise I use the standard Twitter stream on my tablet — which I’m typically using while waiting between events or, more frequently, while watching TV.
Limited Scope But Greater Depth Potential
As most Twitter Users (“tweeps”) know, a single tweet is limited to 140 characters. While it’s difficult to say very much with 140 characters, providing only surface-level knowledge (which is okay for some information), I can always get more in-depth when links are provided. For topics that pique my interest but for which I don’t have time to read in-depth, marking the tweet as ‘favorite’ serves as a great bookmark to go back to so I can read more later.
Twitter is better than a newspaper in many ways. Not only do I not have to buy a paper, I get the benefit formerly provided by purchasing multiple papers and industry magazines with just a few clicks. In addition, I’m able to learn from friends and colleagues who share and link to articles they think are interesting — a pre-screened reading list of sorts.
Some of my favorite accounts to follow?
What’s your favorite way to get news?
