On Thursday March 19, the 12for12k Challenge supporters raised more than $13,000 in 12 hours via a charity tweet-a-thon. This was for Share Our Strength, which combats child hunger in the US.

Put that into context:

* Enough meals to feed almost 14,000 pre-school kids
* Enough funds to allow more than 500,000 families to feed their kids during the school summer break.

I hope Leonard Pitts is reading this, because I'd like to ask him when was the last time he fed 14,000 pre-schoolers or made a difference in the lives of over half a million families?

Guess it's tough coming to terms with being irrelevant…

On Thursday March 19, the 12for12k Challenge supporters raised more than $13,000 in 12 hours via a charity tweet-a-thon. This was for Share Our Strength, which combats child hunger in the US.

Put that into context:

* Enough meals to feed almost 14,000 pre-school kids
* Enough funds to allow more than 500,000 families to feed their kids during the school summer break.

I hope Leonard Pitts is reading this, because I'd like to ask him when was the last time he fed 14,000 pre-schoolers or made a difference in the lives of over half a million families?

Guess it's tough coming to terms with being irrelevant…

And as for Twitter and what it “does,” all I can say is just that—it “does.” As in, unlike any other form of media I've experienced in my lifetime or career (ranging from journalist, snarky columnist (Hello, Pitt), blogger and copywriter), IT HAS AGENCY. It moves you places. It has a current. If you're not very, very careful, it will wash away all the jaded cynicism you've worked a lifetime to build up about “people.”

Steer clear, Pitt. It's not for you. Very dangerous stuff.

Thanks, Scott. Valiant.

Miss Ive

It's like saying the New York Times is the same as Hustler because they're both print magazines. Tarring with the same brush is a dangerous approach to take and is just the Pitts… (see what I did there? No? Okay, I'm going home…)

Leonard Pitts is a gifted writer, but on this one, I think he missed the mark. In a stroke of irony, many folks used Twitter to express their admiration for the man and his craft, while refuting his arguments from this morning's column. I hope Mr. Pitts sees some of this discourse and witnesses firsthand Twitter's power in facilitating public debate.

My one caveat is that this should be a learning/teaching opportunity. Civility, as Pitts points out, is often a lost art in the social media space. It's nice to see folks offer counterarguments to the Pitts column without devolving to sniping. Thank you — thank you.

I no longer sit here in my home office feeling alone and disconnected from the world.

I was in the corporate world for nearly 10 years and the ONE thing I missed pre-Twitter was the over the cubicle chatter… I'd bark over some snarky reply to a colleague I was teasing, he'd throw out a joke. Someone else would offer a funny comment following a really bad conference call we all listened to him 'endure'. I was part of team in that environment. If someone was missing from work that day, we all wondered what happened. At the end of the week we'd all wish one another a Happy Weekend and relate whatever plans we had. That was one of the pieces of working in corporate that I genuinely missed going freelance.

Over the cubicle talk is GOLD to me now working at home. Twitter gave it back only better – Now I can also tune out those I really do not want to listen to (unfollow), something I couldn't do on the job seated near gas passing Gene or the secretary who insisted on eating tuna at lunch and eggs for breakfast.

All day long I have Twitterfox running so I can 'listen' to all these contacts and friends I have and when I want to say something back I can, and if not I just listen. I've gone from being alone and feeling unproductive at times to LOVING my freelance career all over again.

I was starting to not enjoy working for myself but now Twitter has given me back productive days, idea sharing, friendly fooling around, and most of all I don't feel so darn isolated and alone. I feel part of a community again.

Holly Becker
decor8blog.com