Tweet Abuse

I like Twitter.

Not for the celebrity gossip stuff, or the middle school twitter battles that occur over Johny looking at Julie, while Robbie was messing with Sue.

It is, however, an excellent system for keeping tabs on a situation that is currently underway.

A few months ago, when the Town Leaders Billerica were trying to manipulate the election over whether to change the traffic flow through the center of town, it was through twitter that you heard live what was happening.. minute to minute.

Here in Dracut, when there is a big storm and power goes out, it is through twitter that we hear when different locations re-acquire their power.. or it goes out again… often hours before National Grid updates their information sites.

A couple weeks ago, when school was not cancelled during that morning storm, it was through twitter that we heard from kids having trouble driving to school, and busses having difficulty getting up and down some of the streets in town. And it was because of twitter reporting that some parents made the decision to just have their children stay home.

Last week, however, we saw one of the problems with twitter. Some fool student, according the the Lowell Sun, created a twitter account under the name of Superintendent Steve Stone. It sounds as if he just used it to do some venting over the storm issue, and when word got out the account was shut down.

It is a reminder that you need to look at the source of important information before you pass it on.. and look for a second source if you are making decisions based on tweets.

Every now and then, when something interesting happens, you may catch me on twitter at @dracutforum

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