September 8, 2008
Colgate University Has an Official Twitterer. World Yawns.
Who the heck is Ajay Chahar? You may find out if you follow his life by visiting Colgate University’s home page. (Look in the bottom-right corner.)
That’s because Mr. Chahar, a freshman at Colgate, is more or less the university’s official twitterer — that is, someone who posts “tweets” on Twitter, the real-time message service that goes out to cell phones and computer screens. The university provides its home-page link to “follow Ajay Chahar” under the heading “’Gatetwitter.” The last update pretty much gives an indication of the excitement that is the life of Ajay: “finished physics class and now headed to the library!” The exclamation point is too much.
Mr. Chahar reportedly had 10 followers recently, but now he has nine. (Let’s see: Director of PR, one; university president, two; mom, three; dad, four….) Personally, I’ll wait for “’Gatetwitter: The Greek Edition.” —Scott Carlson
Posted on Monday September 8, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
Commenting is closed for this article.
Previous: U. of Texas Web Site Offers Marching-Band Basics
Next: Copyright Clearance Center Expands Blanket Pricing Offer
What a bloody twit! Incidentally, Mr. Chahar might be better served by DOING rather than TRYING to apply himself to his homework, although I fear that at the level of smarts displayed, even the best effort will end in a twit. On the other hand, bird brains, twitter, and all that twit tweet. Goes together, you know…Twitty sounds emerge as the result. Incidentally, no offence meant, aves! It’s all a twitty coincidence.
— Dag von Lubitz Sep 8, 07:19 PM #
I find this subtitle and sarcastic commentary unworthy of the kind of reporting I expect from the chronicle. Maybe I don’t read the wired section enough and am missing something but I find the tone of this piece unprofessional. I would expect a straightforward report of this news that colgate is trying a new technology. You could have at least waited a few weeks to reserve your judgment about whether this effort is a success or even been more subtle in critiquing whether it was at all interesting. I expect more from the chronicle.
— colgate alum in higher Ed Sep 9, 07:55 AM #
Dag,
My my, aren’t we proud of ourselves for our little wordplays! Start to open your mind a bit by reading the recent NYT magazine article about digital intimacy. Lots of good fodder within for your wordsmithing, but also some items for you to reflect upon.
— A. G. Rud Sep 9, 07:58 AM #
If the reporter had conducted any research he would have found social media is a way of life for undergraduates. They love Twitter and use it. Sounds like Colgate was smart enough to consider its audience while the reporter thought his audience would appreciate his opinion. We don’t. We expect much more from the Chronicle.
— Kenner Sep 9, 08:39 AM #
Have you folks tried Twitter? It’s just so much rubbish, isn’t it.
“me, me, me, look at me—I’m going to bathroom now, I’m bored now, I just answered the phone.”
Remember when George was trying to explain to the NBC executive why people would watch a show about nothing ? “because it’s on tv”.
There’s Twitter, it’s on the Internet.
— Suria Mashgeh Sep 9, 08:48 AM #
what’s up with the snark in this post?
— joe Sep 9, 08:53 AM #
Re: post #2: Would you be upset if you weren’t a Colgate alum? C’mon: the tone of the article was perfectly appropriate.
— steve Sep 9, 09:10 AM #
#2 – get a life!!!!!!!!
— jack Sep 9, 09:27 AM #
I find it interesting that the author of this article did not even try to identify with the current college student. First year students are more obsessed with technology than ever before and really are a more than little over interested in the lives of those around them. Twitter seems to me to be something similar to the Facebook newsfeed that so many of us see everyday when we log into our social networking sites. Anonymity and privacy are no longer valued among student populations… unless the administration is trying to get a look into student’s lives on campus.
— mo Sep 9, 10:22 AM #
I, too, am very surprised by the unnecessary negative tone of this post. It’s particularly unsettling when one Chronicle reporter writes this article slamming Colgate for attempting something relatively-mundane but exploratory and innovative but another reporter praises Brown for upgrading their network, a similarly mundane activity not at all exploratory or innovative. Is the message here that Chronicle reporters will mock you using their national forum if you try something new and innovative? Sure, Twitter may not be everyone’s cup of tea and this experiment may not even work out for Colgate but knocking them for trying this seems way out of line and very disrespectful and unprofessional.
— Kevin R. Guidry Sep 9, 11:55 AM #
I find this article ridiculous. I applaud Colgate for trying new ways to reach their audience unfortunately they are going about it wrong. There are over 1 million Twitter users with the average age being about 37. Twitter is very popular with media outlets, airlines, nonprofits like American Red Cross, even NASA tweets. Many universities are using Twitter it’s just about using it properly, reporting sports scores, updating alumni about upcoming events, deadlines for admission, financial aid. Here is an incomplete list of some universities using Twitter
Allegheny College http://twitter.com/alleghenycol
Aquinas College http://twitter.com/AQCampusLife
Auburn University http://twitter.com/AuburnU
Butler University http://twitter.com/butlersports
Calvin College http://twitter.com/CalvinCollege
Cornell News http://twitter.com/cornellnews
George Mason University, Center for History and New Media http://twitter.com/chnm
Franklin College http://twitter.com/FranklinCollege
Hofstra University http://twitter.com/HofstraU (Questionable – UPDATES PROTECTED)
Ithaca College News http://twitter.com/intercom
Knight Center for Environmental Journalism http://twitter.com/GreatLakesEcho
Lynchburg College http://twitter.com/lynchburg
McGill University Career Development Office http://twitter.com/cdolaw
Michigan State http://twitter.com/Michigan_State
Missouri University of Science and Technology http://twitter.com/missourisandt/
MODUL University Vienna, Austria http://twitter.com/MUV
Norwich University http://twitter.com/NorwichNews
Notre Dame http://twitter.com/NDdotEDU
Pacific Science Center http://twitter.com/pacsci
Pitzer College http://twitter.com/pitzercollege
Rasmussen College http://twitter.com/rasmussen
RMIT University http://twitter.com/RMIT
Roanoke College http://twitter.com/roanokecollege
Saint Anselm http://twitter.com/saintanselm
Southern Methodist University http://twitter.com/smudallas
SUNY New Paltz http://twitter.com/newpaltz
Universe Awarenss for Young Children http://twitter.com/unawe
University of Kentucky http://twitter.com/WildcatThursday
University of Maryland , Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities http://twitter.com/UMD_MITH
University of Michigan – The University Club http://twitter.com/uclub
University of Wisconsin-Green Bay http://twitter.com/uwgb
Virginia Commonwealth University Information Security http://twitter.com/vcuinfosec
Wayne State University (Detroit, MI) http://twitter.com/waynestate
— Kristine Sep 9, 12:54 PM #
[Note: ignoring the tone of the article as well as a number of the comments…]
Colgate has a single twitter-person. Hmmm…. not a bad idea, but I think it could then be better presented on the admissions site. One of the key benefits of twitter is the ability to aggregate a bunch of conversations into a single stream. It seems that for a home page presentation, it would be far better to create a stream of a bunch of different people and have that flow through. I think Colgate missed the mark here, in that they jumped on the bandwagon without understanding the concept/purpose of the media, but that said, I also applaud them for giving twitter a shot, as I fully expect that while the official twitter(er) only has 9/10 followers now, they will not remain so.
http://twitter.com/lewisandclark
http://twitter.com/davidmckelvey
David McKelvey
Director of New Media
Lewis & Clark
— David McKelvey Sep 9, 02:47 PM #
This Twitter stuff is crap.
— eg Sep 9, 08:01 PM #
By theway, that “incomplete list” of colleges that are using Twitter seems to be colleges that are using it to broadcast press-releases and college announcements, not the mundane details of someone’s life. “Picking my nose right now!” Gimme a break. And #4 — get a life.
— eg Sep 9, 08:06 PM #
I agree the negative tone of the article isn’t’ warranted. Having one person tweet is pretty boring, but get a dozen or so and it really helps illustrate the personalities in the school. Of course the higher the number of people submitting tweets, the higher the risk that they’ll say something that doesn’t reflect well on the school. That’s why it’s natural to see this happen a step at a time.
rusty
— rusty Sep 10, 05:16 PM #