The other day I was discussing Twitter with a friend and I think we had similar feelings on the subject. I simply don’t understand the point of it at all.
I know I’m fairly late on this bandwagon and it’s probably been talked about ad nauseam but I’m sure there are 3 or 4 people who read this blog that don’t know what it is so I’ll give a brief explanation. All it is a website where you send 140 character maximum messages, or “tweets”, to people who “follow” your Twitter page. And those “followers” can reply to your “tweets”. It’s basically Facebook, stripped of everything but your status updates, only you can make it completely public to anyone. It’s like having a set email contact list in which to send all your inane thoughts and I really don’t get it.
I understand the irony of someone who writes a blog about the excruciating minutia of his everyday life being perplexed by this phenomenon but I just don’t comprehend why people are into this. At least in a blog post I have more than 140 characters to formulate an idea, complete a thought and attempt (usually in vain) to be somewhat funny or intelligent. I generally agree with the adage brevity is the soul of wit, but this is taking it to a new level. I kind of feel like the evolution of social networking sites coincides with the devolution of conversation and literature. Why bother actually talking to friends when you can just follow their tweets? And who needs to read when you can get all your information from the CNN twitter page? Never mind that there is barely room for a grammar and punctuation in 140 characters much less the ability to tell a full story.
I’m not one to write something off without giving it a chance though, so in the name of science I’m creating my own account. Who knows, maybe there are some unknown aspects that make it super awesome. Maybe I can get more friends involved and it actually becomes enjoyable. We’ll see. If you are into twitter yourself, and you feel so inclined, you can follow me here. Get ready for a lot of “tweets” about Kate from Lost or about how many beers I’ve had on any particular night. It should be pretty riveting.
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5 comments:
I swore just the other week I absolutely did NOT need Twitter in my life. I keep up with my friends. Who needs Twitter? Which unleashed a minor war, the dust is still settling. Since then? I've been writing around, looking for my audience outside D.C. and a media friend convinced me Twitter was the way to go for building a readership. After listening to his breakdown, it made sense. So while I won't be tweeting about some hotguyz in Starbucks, I will be hitting the tweet twail...looking for adventures in all the wrong places.
I'm on Twitter, but I really don't check it much ... which I guess isn't the point of Twitter.
Washington Cube - That actually is a pretty good idea, maybe I'll implement the pimp my blog twitter strategy.
Los - Yeah, I seem Twitter usage petering off to nothing after a few weeks tops.
I prefer to hone my one-liners with my Twitter.
Anything else would be excruciatingly boring.
"Went to the grocery store today. All the avocados are soft."
...See what I mean?
Just me - this is definitely going to be my new strategy
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