Twitter and micro-blogging: a new medium?
My friend Steve got me to sign up for Twitter last October. He was just so damn excited about it that I gave in and registered for what I thought to be “another damn social networking and poor excuse for an instant messenger for the geek elite” account. After more some more thoughts about twitter (some of them exponentially more vulgar than the previously mentioned), my twitter account survived unscathed during my deletion binge of my other social networking profiles.
What is twitter really? I’m still trying to figure that out for myself. Besides being a company name that I can’t tell whether it should be Title Cased or lower cased, it seems to be the most precocious new spin on well established ideas and technology that I’ve seen in awhile.
From the twitter.com homepage:
Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?
In essence, twitter is an instant messenger that connects you to the rest of the world. It’s like getting the opportunity to speak to the universe, know that the universe is listening, and even sometimes have the universe speak back to you.
Amy Gahran, someone who speaks very intelligently about online communication (much more so than my rantings), seems to find new and inventive ways to effectively use twitter. Mika, who goes by Mysterymika101, gets points for being, by far, the most purely entertaining with her mother-chef-stripper commentary.
Even with the above goodness I’ve found, I’m still stumped why I like twitter so much. It’s like a piece of great artwork to my amateur eye; I know I like it, but damned if I can come up with a good reason why.
I’m interested in hearing what others have to say about using this service, if you do use twitter. Successes? Embarrassments? Resolutions to the eternal meaning of life?
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5 Responses to “Twitter and micro-blogging: a new medium?”
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Thought provoking piece.
Thanks Jeremy- the best compliment for a person who wants to be a remembered artist is to be written about while still chewing grass on this side of the dirt!
Twits twitter to note things about life, work and play that people who see us everyday take for granted.
Just a brief word here and a couple of links which exemplify Twitter for me..I have mused aloud, as it were, a little, about twitter on my own blog, which is where these links will take you..
http://tindle.wordpress.com/2007/11/05/twittertweetering-in-the-hedge/
http://tindle.wordpress.com/2007/11/20/above-and-beyondreality-twitter/
http://tindle.wordpress.com/2007/11/24/ill-follow-you-if-youll-follow-mejoining-the-twitteratti/
I’ve stuck with Twitter..try it, you may have the same experience as me..in some senses, Twitter has changed my view of the world..Yes..Really..
George Bolam (tindle)
Mika: It’s a bit like voyeur-vision with you, getting a chance to see your whole life. Admitting I’m a voyeur? I’d never do that on a public medium.
George: I just read your posts and appreciate being guided to them. For the first time I feel like I get to jump into a new technology-medium, one with lots of potential, at the near beginning. Maybe one of us will coin a term for micro-blogging that is as catchy as AJAX was for javascript?
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