 "Photo: Emily Moser")
Some people use social networking sites to meet new people; for Twitter users these meetings are called Tweetups.
Students from the campus of about 30,000 students at Texas Tech meet fellow Twitter users through Lubbock’s Tweetup group every Sunday.
Simon Ponder, a Tech alumnus from San Antonio and a regular at Lubbock Tweetups, said Tweetups began in cities where people met face to face after online interactions through Twitter, freeing themselves of the 140-character constraint.
“(A Tweetup is) a group of people that meet to discuss things and take it out of the restriction that Twitter puts on you,” he said.
Ponder said he originally used Twitter for news but has found a job possibility through the Web site.
The first Tweetup Ponder said he attended was in San Antonio, which had about 30 to 40 people. He said there are sometimes variations to the locations of the Tweetups, but coffee shops are usually chosen because they have wireless Internet.
“The one I went to in San Antonio was in a bar, and I didn’t feel comfortable taking out my laptop,” he said.
Ponder said he began to become interested in establishing a Tweetup group for the Lubbock community. He contacted Jed Cummins, a Tech graduate student in higher education and administration from Evergreen, Colo., in February and he said Lubbock’s Tweetup group grew from there.
“We combined our efforts to build it to something more because before I think it was just Jed and others who were already friends,” he said.
Cummins said he has been having Tweetups in Lubbock before the Lubbock Tweetup group officially began. Cummins said he created Lubbock Tweetup account during the summer, but the official Tweetup began in February.
Cummins said Lubbock Tweetup mostly takes place at the Starbucks by campus, where people meet to discuss various topics related to technology or YouTube, such as “Auto-tune the News.” He said Lubbock Tweetup typically consists of certain people, but he always finds it interesting who shows up on any given night.
“If we wanted more people, we could do more,” Cummins said. “I appreciate the kind of intimacy or camaraderie.”
He began using Twitter in July 2008 because he wanted to keep in touch with a friend after his move to Texas for graduate school. Cummins said he believes Twitter has gained popularity especially after seeing an advertisement for the Ashton Kutcher vs. CNN Twitter challenge in April on a billboard at the intersection of 19th Street and University Avenue.
“Well, now it’s mainstream,” Cummins said, “when it’s on a billboard in Lubbock, Texas.”
Danielle Stolley, a regular at Lubbock Tweetup and a senior electronic media and communications major from Granbury, said she feels the activity of students using Twitter has died down since the summer.
“I think it’s going to go through waves,” Stolley said. “I can tell people don’t use it as much as they did in the summer.”
Stolley said she has been using Twitter since March after a friend convinced her to get one. She is also one of two interns who help maintain and update the university’s social networking Web sites such as Myspace, Facebook and Twitter.
Another regular of the Tweetup, Stephen Torrence said he made a Twitter account in Spring 2008 but didn’t begin using it until the fall of that year. Torrence, a senior philosophy and general studies dual major from Georgetown, said after getting involved with Lubbock Tweetup, he began learning more about Twitter and using the Web site more often.
Twitter has become a distraction for him, Torrence said, and he has to turn off TweetDeck to get anything done. He has gained more than knowledge of Twitter by being a regular of the Tweetup group — he has met new people.
“We’ve actually developed a relationship with the baristas,” he said after two Starbucks employees came over to the group and gave out hugs.
Janelle Gillespie, shift manager at the Starbucks near campus, said she had seen the group meet in the Starbucks for some time and eventually became curious.
“One night last year, me and my friend asked Jed about the group at the counter, and we ended up talking there for about a hour and a half,” she said.
Gillespie, a junior mechanical engineering major from Thunderbay, Ontario, said after meeting Jed she slowly began to meet the rest of the Tweetup group. She said a person from Lubbock Tweetup is the reason she has recently began a Twitter account. She said Twitter is somewhat confusing to her because she doesn’t use it that much.
“I’m more of a Facebook person,” Gillespie said, “but I can see Twitter gaining popularity.”
Ponder said although he too has seen Twitter gain popularity, he believes Twitter has not reached the popularity of other social networking sites.
“Facebook will still be the dominant social-networking system because it has already gained popularity with the college-aged and professional sector,” Ponder said. “Twitter is a rising star, but it still has a way to go.”
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