Couple of guys talk about how they used Twitter to make it through chemotherapy. (description)
A lot of the people in the room seemed seemed to be there for the chemo part of the talk. Quite a few cancer survivors, and quite a few people who lost loved ones to cancer. I have to say that I was there for the Twitter part. I’ve never really been touched by cancer. Yeah, one of my grandfathers died of it, and that sucked. But it’s not something I’d normally think about, and I have absolutely zero understanding of what folks like Drew and and Brian (the speakers) go through.
I was there because I’ve been following @thatdrew on Twitter for some months, and appriciate his Twitter antics from the point of view of a fellow activist and Twitterer. Basically, I wanted to get some tips.
What I got instead was a whole lot better. What I got was a whole new perspective on Twitter.
Big take aways:
Twitter’s low bar to participation makes it ideal for people who are having a hard time participating.
140 characters is enough to say something meaningful, something that impacts people.
Twitter is both personal and public at the same time. It let’s you control how you present yourself, but demands authenticity.
To beat cancer you need two things. You need to fight it like hell, and you need to get lucky. (Some people put up a truly heroic fight, but they just loose. ) Their connections through Twitter helped keep these guys fighting.
