Monday, October 12, 2009

Really bad keyboard, and what I think is TMI

I'm at home for the weekend (will actually be coming back to NYC tomorrow), and this keyboard is really bad...I thought I was going to write a blog about how bad this keyboard was, and how funky my typing looks on it as it skips letters and spaces and such, but it seems to be cooperating quite well now. So, if that's the case, I'll actually post a thought about a recent tweet I posted on Twitter, which many of my friends have said was TMI.

The tweet said, "King Taco: the best GI cleaning agent ever. My entire digestive track feels like it's on fire. Love it."

I was at dinner with Juliana tonight, and she apparently blocked that tweet from her memory. "TMI", she kept saying, echoing what a couple people said in the comments for that status on Facebook. Here's the thing though. What IS TMI? (and for those of you who aren't in the know of weird Internet acronyms, TMI = Too Much Information, but that isn't really the question) And what's appropriate or not for a tweet or a status update (as the case may be, as my tweets automatically feed into my status updates)?

Obviously, status updates and their appropriateness vary from person to person. Maybe it's my background in health care, but bodily functions just aren't really considered TMI for me. I happily share them with anyone who's curious (thankfully, I suppose, most people aren't). Other things - my financial situation, my family, my interpersonal relationships, my insecurities, my emotions. Deep emotions (not surfacey stuff like "NU just beat Purdue! Booyah!!!") - these ARE considered TMI for social networking sites. That information is for my friends, and not for entertaining status updates. Which, I guess, is my philosophy on status updates. Everyone can see them. I have over 1,000 friends on Facebook. Why not make it interesting/entertaining, so if people have to read it, it won't be 1) boringly superficial and overdone or 2) about something in which the person reading has very little context and honestly might not care about?

For example, everyone's entitled to their own status update rules, but I just don't get people who post things like "Cynthia is happy!" or "Cynthia can't believe that just happened." or "Cynthia is depressed and having a bad day." Because, you know, that just leads to more questions. It's almost like begging people to ask about it, and if you really wanted people to know, why not just post about it in the first place? I'm telling you, it's much more entertaining for those of us who are too lazy to take our hand off the mouse to type a question in the comment box.

Ok, that was a segue. Back to the point.

So, because I have no qualms, and apparently no shame, about bodily functions, since they don't really touch on things I consider "sacred", I don't have a problem posting tweets about them. I'm sorry, Juliana and others who may have raised an eyebrow at it. Live with it. At least I tell you about what really matters in person.

3 comments:

esafran said...

Dear Cynthia!
I am SO glad we're friends. I'm reading your post and laughing away!
Our meeting was as random and you are as refreshing as a mint!!
Erika

Dining on Deals said...

Here's the thing - you say you happily share with anyone who is "curious" about your bodily functions. However, much as I love you, I'm NOT curious about your GI functions unless they are seriously making you sick and I should be concerned. But when you tweet/status update them, curious or not, the information is thrust upon me. However, I think we can all agree, at least it was a better update then "Cynthia can't believe what just went down."

Dr Mariann Hardey said...

Tmi is a beautiful thing! Otherwise we'd be 'stuck ' with updates about tea and Lost viewing. Your tweet served dual purposes; 1. Taco king navigation and proximity to wc (practical advice) 2. (Healthy) relief that your digestive tract is all in order ;-)

Now I must make a cup o chai... and tweet about it.

(@mazphd)