I was an avid Twitter user in high school. As a 16 year old, it seemed easy to come up with thoughts worth sharing in a 140 characters or less. I followed celebrities and retweeted random accounts that were funny and #relatable. It was all about the retweets, replies, and favorites. This all changed when I came to college.

With a consistent course load, my tweets became less and less frequent. Even more, I didn’t have anything to say. My life pretty much became a cycle. All I was doing was going to class, sleeping, eating and the occasional socializing. Twitter was still there for the occasional funny thought or observation, but I realized that how I once used Twitter didn’t fit with my life anymore.

When I got a new phone, I didn’t even re-download the app. Besides for the occasional tweet for a class, my account stayed relatively quiet for about two years. This all changed when I registered for a social media course this term. A lot of my friends have taken similar stances on Twitter and it seems to be the consensus that it is best for news rather than up-to-the-minute updates on any teens life.

For my social media course, I have to tweet news twice day. For one, this was a big step to just be consistently posting on a platform again. Even Facebook is reserved for pictures and important updates to family that I am alive at college. My second concern was to come back to a medium that I have become very unfamiliar with. I did re-download the app for class if anyone was wondering. I set reminders on my phone, out of concern that tweeting had become so unnatural for me.

A few things happened for me when I started using Twitter again. To start, the social network has changed a lot since the last time I actively used it. It now has a moments section that gives the news highlights in several different categories. It is an easy way to be aware of current events. It also was very helpful as I began tweeting news for my class.

The next thing that happened was that I found myself following several different news organizations: newspapers, magazines, and television stations. In trying to find interesting news to tweet about, I was becoming more aware of the world around me. News is constantly happening and Twitter is an excellent outlet for constantly updated information.

It became much easier for me to stay current on specific topics, whether that is state news or celebrity gossip. The semester is still early and I am still trying to re-acclimate myself to Twitter. But I will say, I have found a much more useful tool in using Twitter for news than simple observations. The goal is that I will still stay news conscious even when the semester is over.