3 weeks ago I wrote a post called "What my PLN has Done for Me" which described the amazing journey I had had since rejoining Twitter 9 days prior. At that time I had around 75 followers and was astounded that people even wanted to hear what I had to say. As the weeks passed and I figured out how to utilize Twitter even better, and more importantly got even more inspired, those follower numbers grew. I could pretend I didn't pay much attention to it, but I have never had people follow me before, so every day I was a little bit amazed.
The other day, as my husband passed by my computer, he was much surprised at how many followers I had and mentioned that it would be so cool when I doubled the amount of people following me than the amount that I follow. He was surprised when I didn't agree. While some people thrive on followers and boast their numbers like proud honor roll bumper stickers, I focus on a different number; the number of people I follow. That number tells me how many connections I have made on a global scale. That number tells me how many opinions I treasure, how many voices I listen to. It tells me how many people I can ask questions to and sometimes how many different answers I may receive. Most importantly, it tells me how many researchers, article readers, community creators, and innovative tryer outers that I can learn from. For me, that is why I come back to Twitter again and again; always learning, always seeking, and always finding new people to follow. So what if my number of following and followers nearly match up, that just means that I am very lucky person.
So if I don't follow you, and you think I should, then let me know. I am not afraid to follow because I know how much my students will gain from the knowledge you pass on.
