Letters to My Children

Tweets to Make You Think

It started as advice to his own two children entering adulthood, it spread to his students at the University of the Free State and now tens of thousands of his followers of Twitter and Facebook wait for Jonathan Jansen's words of wisdom every day. Each day Jansen (@JJ_UFS) writes a Letter to my children -- a nugget of advice on life, love and becoming a compassionate, thinking human being. Jansen has become South Africa's moral barometer in a time when leadership seems to be sorely lacking in many areas of our country which explains why this project has struck such a chord with South Africans young and old alike. Jansen talks to young people using new media but continues to give them good old fashioned advice about how to conduct their lives as strong and caring citizens who live life to the fullest. In this book, Jansen explains his thinking behind his wildly popular Twitter campaign and shares the first 160 Tweets with his readers. The Tweets range in subject from politics, to love and relationships, to being a student and ensuring that you question the status quo. They include the following examples: condoms break; never under any circumstances become a politician; choose public service instead ; here is the secret to dealing with peer pressure--choose the right peers; go to university to screw-up; how else will you learn?