The Twittering Farmer

July 3rd, 2009 by Mike Knutson

We often assume that Twitter is a “Gen Y thing” and that rural places haven’t gotten into the social media craze. But a CNN article titled “Twittering from the tractor” provides a glimpse of how some Midwest Farmers are embracing technology.

So what’s the value Twitter and other social networking tools offer farmers? The article discusses some knowledge sharing applications currently being used by farmers, but I think the article captures the real value these technologies offer people in rural places with the following:

The biggest draw of smartphones and online social networks is that they provide human connections to people for whom farm life can be lonely, said Chuck Zimmerman, publisher of an agriculture news blog called agwired.com.

Yes, farmers are social creatures. That’s why rural community cafés are often filled with farmers who come to town each morning for a cup of coffee. I’m not sure that the majority of farmers are going to embrace this type of communication, but we’ll probably see more of it in the future.

And let’s keep in mind, nobody tweets without broadband internet, and blackberries are a waste of money if the closest cell tower is 45 miles away. Those are real issues limiting technology’s use in some rural communities.

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