May 3, 2008
My Tweet Tooth
My Root Canal on Twitter
It’s all Melanie’s fault. In March I received an email from her extolling the virtues of twitter, that micro-blogging, naval-gazing, Web 2.0 service. I knew about twitter but was totally uninterested in subscribing to a service that would allow me (force me!) to post short little “tweets” about what I was doing at the moment. More importantly, why on earth would I want to follow others doing the same? But she persevered.
In her email she said: “You’re receiving this because you’re among those open minded smart people I know who gets that things have changed and we need to understand the future. Right?” Right. And she went on to demonstrate how she was using it in the classroom. Ok, I was intrigued. A former prof, I have always been curious about how to get people interested in new ideas. And, now that I’m a veteran museum professional (ten years last month!) I’m constantly exploring and evangelizing new ways to connect the net to the museum.
So, I opened a twitter account. The artist in me soon found the limitations of the medium interesting: how could I be creative in 140 characters? And, given the flotsam and jetsam of the majority of twitter posts, how could I say something interesting? My posts weren’t numerous and those following my every word were minuscule. Not a problem. I could see the creativity in the endeavor so I continued.
Last week, as I sat in my endodontist’s office waiting to be evaluated for a possible root canal I tweeted: “Waiting to see root canal doc. Of course, my tooth doesn’t hurt today.” Suddenly, I got an email notifying me an endodontist from somewhere in Canada was following me. I asked for a consult in a short 140 character burst. My real doctor laid it out: 90% chance I’d need the procedure within six months. So I scheduled my appointment and suddenly I connected the dots. I saw the potential for something more interesting than drilling into my enamel: I would broadcast my root canal via twitter.
My twitter-based endodontist thought that was a great idea and tweeted my plans to his twitter followers. Suddenly, as I sat waiting for the drilling to begin geeky dentists and endodontists from around the continent were following me. It was a smart mob of dental professionals.
With iPhone in hand I called up both my twitter page and my twitter reply page so I could post a play-by-play and see the tweets of those following me. They were asking me questions as the procedure began. My endodontist didn’t really understand my groundbreaking attempts to use social media to communicate during this medical procedure. But she was a great sport about it. She explained what she was doing and every now and then would stop so I could inform my audience (PDF of my tweets: read from the bottom up).
And, like any conceptual artist worth his weight in ideas I realized the most important thing was to document what I’d done. Just that very morning Rob Pegoraro, the tech writer for the Washington Post had written an article on Twitter. I wrote him and Marc Fisher, another Post writer who had covered my eBay auction back in 1999 (where I auctioned my personal demographics). Marc wrote a piece about my twittered root canal. I’ve posted the transcript of my tweets as well as the replies (PDF) from those who followed along during the procedure.
I must admit, I was afraid to tell my more normal friends and coworkers what I’d done. Groundbreaking as it might have been, this was pretty crazy, even for me (and some of my fellow conceptual artists thought I was nuts). But a little idea art always makes me feel alive (and after a root canal, that’s a nice place to be). This was a demonstration of how social media could forge some interesting relationships. The best art is about just that. I never thought I’d “connect” with dentists from around North America. But my tooth is much better for it.
Related Post: My Previous Root Canal Experience
Update: A permanent home for My Tweet Tooth (getting the title font just right was fun).
- [ Twitter, Social Media, Root Canal, Dentist ]
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Comments
That’s great Jeff - I especially like your last paragraph about “normal friends”. I know exactly what you mean.
Once I had a dentist appointment on Halloween and was participating in a cell phone photo scavenger hunt, so the dentist let me take some photos during my appointment.
Posted by: Dona on May 3, 2008 11:50 AM
Cool stuff!
My staff and I were talking about your endodontist and how much patience they must have had to allow you to ask questions and tweet from the chair…
Posted by: Periapex on May 3, 2008 2:48 PM
Oh WOW! I am honoured by this post!
I love how you’re using this. Much more interesting than most. And this is why I always say technology is simply a mirror of whatever is in front of it. If that’s interesting the result will be interesting.
Another really interesting Twitter user is Torley Wong - of Second Life fame. I strongly advise following him for something totally out of the ordinary. He is entirely unconventional: twitter.com/torley
Jenny Holzer also has a tweet: twitter.com/jennyholzer
As for me, I’ve since realised that there are a lot of upsides and downsides to this wonderful new thing. It mostly has to do with the fact that it’s all new and we don’t yet know what we’re doing with it. I’ve been trying to be transparent about how I’m using it - with mixed results. Some people say “thanks for providing context. this is good.” others are like, “why be so formal. just go with the flow.”
Frankly, I’m not willing to just go with the flow without any critical thought or reflection. Not in the current state of an internet - a site for the battle between corporate interests and citizens voices. So I remain reflexive and I communicate this as I go along. In hopes that we’ll all figure out productive uses of these tools.
Posted by: Melanie on May 3, 2008 6:10 PM
Comments are now closed for this post. But there are a few other entries which might provoke an opinion or two.
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