One Good Tweet Deserves Another: A Diabetic’s Journey on Twitter

by kerri morrone sparling

“Hi, my name is Kerri and I have a Twitter account.”

“Hi, Kerri.”

“Actually, you can just call me @sixuntilme. It’s my, um, Twitter handle.”

Even though this TA (Twitterers Anonymous?) meeting is purely in my head, I’m still blushing as I write this. Because really, who needs to know what I’m doing or thinking at any given time of the day, in 140 characters or less?

No one. Everyone? Is this Twitter thing a good idea?

Twitter is the perfect storm of social media, microblogging, and real people, with people communicating constantly online, staying in touch with old friends and new connections, keeping their worlds closely braided together with just a few sentences every hour or so. Users, known as “Twitterers” or even the highly nerdy but fun to say “Tweeps,” update their account so that the people who follow their account can stay tuned to their thoughts. Individual status updates are called “Tweets,” and there’s a whole host of terms that include the “Tw-“ prefix that might sound silly but really are part of the new social media vernacular.

Twitter could also be viewed as a maelstrom of too much mundane information, with too many Tweets about grilled cheese sandwiches and other tedious tidbits.

The perceived impact of Twitter depends on who you ask. And what you’re looking for.

I write my diabetes blog, and I also have a Twitter account. I’ve been asked why I bother with Twitter when I already write a blog, but I think these tools are very different. My blog is my corner of the Internet where I share my diabetes life, but unless people are leaving comments, it’s less of a conversation and more of an information and experience outlet. Twitter, on the other hand, seems streamlined for connection and conversation. Also, Twitter is more real-time than blogging. It’s like an everyone-facing version of instant messaging, a way of connecting with other online friends in a whole new way.

I signed up for Twitter on February 19, 2007, when I first heard about the service. It sounded like a pile of Facebook status updates, all lined up neatly, with no bells and whistles. I was about to use a DexCom CGM device for the first time, and I wanted to document my experience as it happened. It seemed fitting to use this new social media outlet as a way to raise awareness for diabetes, while I was raising my own awareness at the same time. I was nervous and excited about this new technological step in my diabetes life, and I was itching to share it with my fellow PWDs.

This was my first Tweet: The DexCom just locked into place. Blood sugar is clocking in at 87 mg/dl. This thing has definite jazzy potential.

After dipping just that one proverbial toe into the waters of Twitter, I was ready to dive in. Throughout the day, I updated my Twitter account to reflect how the DexCom was folding into my day. Was it comfortable? How did its results match up with the ones on my blood glucose meter? How often was I thinking about diabetes management, and did this new tool help or hinder my emotional balance? And would my words resonate with other members of the diabetes community?

Chronicling my first few days with the DexCom showed me how many questions come up during the course of a day with diabetes, and Twitter gave me a way to ask and learn from others almost instantly. Anyone following my Twitter account could send their thoughts to me through a reply message, and suddenly it was information overload. But in a good way, because as I sat there with that machine attached to me for the first time, I could put my “Okay, now what do I do when it beeps wildly at me?” questions out there. And people answered. We all learned together.

It was a beautiful thing, in that hyper-nerdy way.

On Twitter, I follow a lot of people with diabetes who aren’t blogging, like @slottedpig and @christi99. It’s a very cool experience to interact with other diabetes bloggers, like @ninjabetic, @scottkjohnson, @karen_mst, @diaTribenews : >, and @askmanny, because their Tweets give even more insight to their diabetes lives than their blogs alone. I’m also following diabetes companies (i.e., @dlife, @cwdiabetes, @wdd) to keep up with their latest developments, and also health care advocates that aren’t diabetes specific, like @chronicbabe and @drval. And then there’s a pile of people I’m following that don’t have a visible diabetes tie at all.

It seems to be about real people, connecting. Learning from one another. Bantering. Griping. Sharing. Engaging. Twitter is fast becoming one of the biggest online conversations, with most participants never meeting at the same table. And for people with diabetes, this tool is an invaluable way to connect and share our diabetes experiences in raw, honest snippets.

I share a lot of my life with diabetes on Twitter. Sometimes it’s a gripe about a frustrating high blood sugar. Other times it’s a call for feedback about a particular kind of snack. There are times when I simply post a link to my latest blog post, or a link to a post by one of my fellow diabetes bloggers. And there are times when I opt to share links to mainstream media information about diabetes. It’s information sharing at its most volatile and most viral – things in the Twitter-verse move quickly. And for people with diabetes, the good information has the power to outweigh the ignorant and misinformed, if only we can encourage more real people with diabetes to lend their voices to the choir. There was even a movement to raise diabetes awareness two Aprils ago, where people Tweeted the daily details of their diabetes regimen to show others that diabetes isn’t an invisible disease. It’s real, and requires so much of our daily attention.

But let me be straight with you – what I write about on Twitter isn’t just diabetes-related stuff. I use Twitter to share the funny stuff I stumble upon as I cruise through the Internet. I’ll post about my travel plans, or what’s going on in my office, or the thoughts that are tumble-drying in my brain all day long. (And there’s also an embarrassing amount of Tweets about my miserable cat, but I’m electing not to mention that.) Twitter is an extension of my Internet experience, and like the rest of my life, it’s much more than just diabetes.

The sharing of this information is a very powerful thing. And for me, Twitter has been a strong tool in my advocacy arsenal.