One of the many reasons I love Twitter

I'd like to explain to you one of the many, many reasons that I absolutely love Twitter and have made it a huge part of my day and life.  I think one of the best examples I can provide is through a long anecdote -- stick with me.

Despite my personally owned vehicles, I have always had an interest in cars and motor sports, ever since I first laid my hands on Gran Turismo for the original PlayStation.  Front wheel drive.  Rear wheel drive.  All wheel drive.  Four wheel drive.  Superchargers.  Turbochargers.  Naturally aspirated.  4 cylinders.  6 cylinders.  8 cylinders.  Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.  Subaru Impreza WRX.

My interest remained mostly confirmed to the virtual world, since I did not have the funds to obtain one of these rides, and none of the televised motor sports really caught my interest.  I just never could wrap my head around NASCAR -- the races seemed unnecessarily long, the sponsors (Winston cigarettes and Busch beer) were unappealing, and the fanbase had that certain redneck appeal to it that I couldn't get past.  NASCAR has come a long way since those days, but the races are still far too long and honestly, just never held my interest that well.

I watched my first complete Indianapolis 500 in 2006, and I was mildly intrigued.  I felt like the Indy 500 was far too great of an all-American past time to be ignored, and I finally needed to sit down and watch one.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I returned again to watch the 2007 Indianapolis 500, and this time, I was hooked.  I loved the speed, the danger, the diversity of the drivers (yes, as it turns out, a Y chromosome is not required to drive a race car -- shocking!), and the intensity of it.  "Rubbing is racing" in NASCAR.  In IndyCar, it could be a death wish.

I stayed with the IndyCar Series and watched every race from there on out, loving every second of it.  IndyCar had a new fan.  It didn't hurt that I had ties to the league through Sheena's cousin, who just happened to be a race engineer for Panther Racing at the time.

At one point in time, open wheel racing like CART, Champ Car, and IndyCar was the dominant and most popular form of racing in the United States.  In 1996, there was a very bitter "split" when the upstart IndyCar Series broke off from the dominant CART series and took the Indy 500 with them.  This "split" was NASCAR's opportunity, and they seized it, big time.  NASCAR overtook open-wheel racing as the most popular form of racing in the United States.

As a result, the IZOD IndyCar Series is now usually a footnote on the motor sports page, and outside of the Indy 500 or if Danica does something interesting, the coverage is non-existant.  If NASCAR's fanbase is a "pork rinds and Busch Light" crowd, then IndyCar's fanbase is a "wine and cheese" crowd.  It's been consistently shown that IndyCar fans are better educated and have a higher income than NASCAR fans.  The IZOD IndyCar series picked up on this fact and used it to their advantage by embracing technology, and more importantly, Twitter in a huge way.

It doesn't matter that I can't get much IndyCar news from normal sports sources, because nearly every single driver tweets on a daily basis.  The series administrators tweet.  Bloggers tweet.  Journalists from the Indianapolis Star newspaper tweet.  IndyCar is covered like a blanket by Twitter in every conceivable way.  Drivers comment on their qualifying runs.  The Series tweet qualifying and race results.  Heck, even the individual race teams will tweet on their pit strategies during the race!

Check out this article from USA Today for more details on what exactly I'm talking about:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/motor/2010-08-04-2055272001_x.htm

Here is a sport without much mainstream media coverage, that has invented their own ecosystem of coverage via Twitter.  It's absolutely fantastic, and brings me closer to the sport, its drivers, its owners, its administrators, and the media members who cover it better than anything else possibly could.

My friend Matthew Ward has often stated about Twitter, "It's all about WHO you follow."  This hits the nail on the head right there.

Twitter is a way to have a real time, custom news feed of the people and things that matter to you most.  I know that every time I log on to Twitter, I get...

• The latest information on Cyclone athletics
• The latest information on Apple Inc.
• The latest information on the IZOD IndyCar Series
• The latest news from the Des Moines and Cedar Rapids areas
• And so on...

It's almost as if it was a customized, real-time news feed that delivers me exactly what I'm interested in at all times.

Anyone who tries to criticize Twitter as something where people post when they take a dump or other such nonsense make themselves sound completely ignorant.  Yes, there are people who tweet like that, and yes, you have the choice whether to follow them or not.

About 99% of my tweets are about Apple Inc. or Iowa State University.  That's what I'm interested in, that's what I write about.  If you don't like it, don't follow me.  I have had people tell me they were unfollowing me, because they weren't interested in my content or my opinions.  That's what the UNFOLLOW button is for.  :)

Heck, you don't even have to tweet on your own.  It is perfectly fine to use Twitter solely as a source for consuming information -- I have several friends I follow whom almost never tweet, but I know they're on Twitter every day.  You can just follow people and read their tweets.  No one says you have to join in.

If you don't like Twitter or aren't interested in it, that's fine.  No one's forcing you to use it.  However, don't belittle those that do find it a very useful tool with hateful and ignorant statements. Give it a shot, you might just like it.