Social Experiment: Twitter Dad Tuesdays #twitdadtues

This morning I had some interesting Twitter conversations with a few Dads who are on Twitter about how frustrated their spouses are with them at times. The conversations and threads were brought on by reading through this interesting article (“Moms Everywhere are Pissed Off“) as well as from my own experiences trying to be a “technologist”, a loving husband and a caring and attentive father, all at the same time. What I found out is that I’m not alone out there. My wife views my technology-addiction as “the other woman” and I frequently find it hard to balance out my various “lives” or identities.

To that end, I thought that it would make some sense to “share the love” with other Twitter Dads out there. So I came up with this idea that Tuesdays should be “Twitter Dad Tuesdays.” The idea is to build up the Dad relationships on Twitter. So I started with the Tweet:

“Maybe we should make Tuesday’s Twitter Dad Follow Tuesdays! #twitdadtues“

The concept being that you would recommend Twitter Dad that should be followed and add a hashtag (#twitdadtues) to be able to track the messages. You can track the progress of this here (on hashtags.org) and here (on search.twitter.com). It’s actually gaining some traction and I hope it continues.

Moms have a natural way of building up their networks; moms and women are incredibly social and know how to do it in person as well as using other Social Networks (my wife is becoming an expert at Facebook). But dads are learning this social process as well and are getting better at it. Let’s keep the upward trend!

So, if you want to participate in this social experiment, here is what you need to do:

• Every Tuesday, find a Twitter Dad or two that you know and want to share with others
• Write a Tweet that has their name in it (e.g., @hightechdad) and the hashtag “#twitdadtues”
• Look for or view the keyword/hashtag “twitdadtues” and follow some of the Twitter Dads you see coming through the Twitter stream
• Any Dads that follow you, be sure to thank them!
• Repeat!

An example Tweet:

“Great guy to follow is @hightechdad because he melds technology and being a dad #twitdadtues“

Update on 03.03.09 – #twitdadtues is gaining some traction. I also recommend, if you are a Twitter Dad, that you follow @twitterdads as well as join the group on Ning called: “TwitterDads”. Info on the group is here.

Do your part (as a Dad, or caring Wife or Mom or even a child) and keep this movement going forward! Retweet this or give it a Digg!

HTD Says: Are you a Twitter Dad? Tweet that you are proud of it and follow other Twitter Dads out there!