I’ve been trying to get John, my boyfriend, to join Twitter for the past few months. Everytime I give him a good reason, he just comes back with, “I don’t think I’ll use it.”

I didn’t think I’d use Twitter either. All it took was a few people from college joining Twitter to get me hooked. I could keep up-to-date with these people without having to email just to say, “Hey, what’s up?”

My Twitter use really started to explode when I found that companies have started using spokes-tweeple (hehe…) to tweet on behalf of their company. I began following @NAPP_News and found other like-minded designers. I follow tea companies, crafty tweeps, social media tweeps, the local newspaper… etc, etc. I can keep up with any company or person I care to just by glancing at Twitter once an hour or so.

What started this whole post was this cute video I fell upon, Twitter in Plain English. I think it does a great job explaining Twitter to people who aren’t quite interested in the latest social media for the sake of social media.

Twitter in Plain English

I’ll have to show this to John. I’ll probably just get another eye-roll but we’ll see!

I was doing some web surfing when I came across a blog post written about why D. Keith Robinson hates telephones. Well, not telephones exactly, just telephone calls. I have to wholeheartedly agree with his whole post.

I hate talking on the phone. When I hear my cellphone buzzing, my stomach starts tying in knots. “Who’s calling me?”

I rarely ask people to call me, so a phone call is never a welcomed event in my daily life. I hate chit-chat. I hate trying to find something to say in the awkward silences between topics.

The worst part is not really being able to see someone’s reaction. I get nervous when I’m writing emails and talking on the phone because I have no idea how someone is honestly reacting to what I’ve said. They can type or say that they are fine but if I was face-to-face with them I could tell.

The weirdest part about all of this is that my favorite form of communication is probably instant message. It’s faster than email and I can see how quickly someone is responding. I can tell a lot by the spaces of time in my instant message conversations—How long my friend is thinking about what they’re about to say lends a lot to the gravity of the conversation. (Especially now with the “Typing…” note that AIM/Trillian gives you as your friend is typing. You know they haven’t just stepped away.)

After reading this article and seeing the responses, I feel better about my disdain for the telephone. I’m not so weird—even for a girl—to not really like talking on the phone. “Mandy never picks up her phone,” I hear it all the time. It’s starting to become a personality trait for me: “Who are you?” “The girl that never picks up her phone.”

At the risk of sounding like a total Starbucks fan girl, I’m going to show you all another one of Starbucks’ successful attempts at package design. The attention to detail in their designs just makes me squeal in delight. I do this often but Starbucks really deserves the squeals.

Detail one: Embossing the outside of the box - design for my fingers to enjoy.

Detail two: Patterns everywhere! Love it.

Detail three: Crazy 3-d box design. Whoever came up with how the inside of this box would be constructed deserves a medal for awesomeness. I wonder how long you have to sit there with some paper to figure that out.

Detail four: Taking the time to really design the stamp that goes on the chocolate. Sure, you can just throw your name on it and be done but where’s the fun in that? Where’s the need for me to pull out my camera and forever remember what your chocolate looked like?

So kudos to Starbucks for designing and not just throwing your chocolates into a crappy box. It makes the experience a little more memorable. Or maybe I just think that because I’m a designer and notice these things.