Twitter as a Creative Outlet

Posted by Dean Shareski on in fun, twitter

It’s no secret if you follow me on twitter I don’t take it all that seriously. In case you don’t know what I mean, I created this video I sometimes share with new followers warning them of my intent.

While most educators talk about twitter as a great place to develop a personal learning network and even as a Professional Development resource, I enjoy the opportunity to be creative. The constraints of 140 characters is fuel for creativity. When you’re sharing a link or resource, the process is pretty straightforward. But when you’re trying to communicate something of more depth or even tell a story, those constraints make you work hard. With any tool, it’s important to understand and appreciate both the limitations but also the affordances. Real time interaction is powerful feature. This is one of the reason chats are so popular.

I have a fondness for trivia games. A couple of years ago, I got hooked on a “name that tune” game on Twitter. I’d upload sound clips to a storage site and share them on Twitter with the #namethattune hashtag. It’s fascinating to watch different people who are online dive into the game—many of whom I don’t frequently encounter in my usual online circles. There’s something about this kind of interactive activity that strikes a chord with people, much like a casino utan spelpaus resonates with gamers seeking uninterrupted play. This format, without pauses, allows for continuous engagement, offering a parallel to the instant, participatory nature of social media-based games.

A couple of months ago, I riffed off an idea you see occasionally on twitter and started a #replacesongtitlewithpants game. This kind of exploding one Sunday evening and Jon Samuelson captured the tweets. For many, this is proof of how stupid twitter is. For me, it’s proof how much people like to play and connect.

Yesterday John Spencer started his own playful hashtag. #faketvdescription and I played along.

Sort of. Being I was on a layover, this was a great way to pass the time and challenge my creative abilities. I pulled up a list of TV shows and looked for titles that might lend themselves to multiple meanings. It was fun just watching others interact and play off each others’ ideas. While I’d hate to refer to this as collaboration, I certainly consider it creative. Here’s one of my favorites:

I realize this isn’t for everyone. But technologies that fascinate me are the ones that are used in multiple ways. Being an avid twitter user, I’m interested in other ways it can be used to foster creativity and play. What have you done or seen on twitter that encourages creativity?