Wednesday, September 12, 2007

what in the hell is Twitter?

i ask.

1 comment:

selliebee said...

A few months ago a friend called, directed me to www.twitter.com and told me to sign up and friend her. I protested. Demanded an explanation. And only got "you just have to see" as an answer. So I signed up. And at first, I thought it was lame. But I think the interest in this form of social networking is the creative ways in which you can answer the question, "what are you doing?" Of course, some people always answer that question literally, and rather dryly: their twitter timelines are insipid and monotonous, repetitively declaring that they are "drinking coffee" or "checking email." Of course, there are many people who use twitter quite usefully for social networking--to connect with friends, colleagues or other like-minded individuals. There are A LOT of bloggers and podcasters and writers who share their stuff, like this guy http://twitter.com/davidleeking. In general, I've also noticed a lot of the web 2.0 folks have their own networks and friends and sometimes share information, websites, shout out questions and get answers. Oddly, there a lots of librarians on twitter. Actually, this isn't that odd considering the library world's proclivity for jumping on the lastest online social networking bandwagon, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse."A friend got me on twitter. We were chatting on the phone and she directed me to www.twitter.com and told me to sign up and friend her. I protested. Demanded an explanation. And only got "you just have to see" as an answer. So I signed up. And at first, I thought it was lame. But I think the interest in this form of social networking is the creative ways in which you can answer the question, "what are you doing?" Of course, some people always answer that question literally, and rather dryly: their twitter timelines are insipid and monotonous, repetitively declaring that they are "drinking coffee" or "checking email." Of course, there are many people who use twitter quite usefully for social networking--to connect with friends, colleagues or other like-minded individuals. There are A LOT of bloggers and podcasters and writers who share their stuff, like this guy http://twitter.com/davidleeking. In general, I've also noticed a lot of the web 2.0 folks have their own networks and friends and sometimes share information, websites, shout out questions and get answers. Oddly, there a lots of librarians on twitter. Actually, this isn't that odd considering the library world's proclivity for jumping on the lastest online social networking bandwagon, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.

And to answer your question, yes, I twitter. Most of my twitter friends are just people I spotted or who spotted me on the public timeline and I/they thought they/me were interesting. Some continued to be so, others didn't. But it has been interesting to get to know someone by their 140 character or less twitter posts.

But in essence, it's a platform, a stage, really. A place to stand on a soapbox and shout out or whimper. And who knows, maybe someone will hear you.

Add some people, get some friends to join or add some interesting folks on twitter and see how you like it.

 


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