I'm all a Twitter!

[mel]

Re: I'm all a Twitter!

I've been on Twitter since 2006 and until very recently I've only sent or read Twitter from a computer. I'm not very mobile with devices because I don't want to pay for extra mobile services like cell phones or 3G networks or Clearwire. My laptop runs on wireless so if I am lucky enough to be toting the laptop around and get to a free wifi hotspot, then perhaps I'll be on Twitter in some real time fashion. Otherwise I am usually at home on my big Mac twittering away when I'm there.

I did however get a Nintendo DSi and that does internet with wifi, but then again I don't go to many places with free wifi except at home and perhaps the office. The web browser on the Nintendo is quite bare bones and it is a pain to write more than a few words with the thing... barely qualifying it for Twitter use, but still useful for just general browsing... I am not a gamer and don't have a single game for the DSi.

Got a good deal on it and obtained it mainly for the web function, goofy camera and audio player.

I have to agree that Twitter is probably most ideal for folks who have mobile internet and willing to pay for it while on the go. However it is adequate enough for the anchored to the computer types to also make good use of it.

Another thing about Twitter. Several of the people I follow are on this 61 thing and through their "tweets" I have found some interesting music and artists.

[MyopicJoe]

Re: I'm all a Twitter!

Suburbs and cars have isolated people. Twitter gives you a new sense of community (I'm not saying it's better or worse than the old fashion version). It's an entertaining time waster, but it's also be useful. You'll get a lot out of it, even if you use it just from a computer, but it's more useful with a mobile device.

Here's an anti-Twitter argument.

[matapule]

Re: Twitter?

Huh oh, matapule...maybe we're caught in a generation gap?!

No, Tutu, this is not a generation gap, it is Generation X (or Y or Z) just running amuck.

No, Twitter is not for me, email works fine thank you. Texting on a phone? Whats that? Also no Facebook and no camera phone for me. I don't even have a land line phone. As I have already reported a couple of times, I don't even have television service. I can't think of any channels I really like other than the History Channel, Discovery Channel (American Chopper and Overhaulin'), and HGTV. NPR and the Internet work just fine for current events. I am not going to pay $100 per month for cable/telephone/internet service. I put that $100 per month to better service for charitable purposes.

You know, I may be able to live in Hawai'i for relatively inexpensive since I don't need all these fancy gadgets. I'm okay with riding The Bus.

But hey, if you enjoy it, and can afford it, go for it!

[LocalMotion]

Re: I'm all a Twitter!

Unlike Local Motion, I am more interested in what Ryan's having for lunch or what Neenz is watching on TV than I am in making business contacts or spreading some kind of message. I like Twitter for the same reasons I like HT: it's a community of people I'm interested in. It's not a market. But maybe that's why I'm poor.

Ah you misunderstood what i meant... so tell me what's more interesting:

-eating a burger
-watching tv

or

-at Kua 'aina eating a awesome guacamole burger (and possibly adding a pic of it)
- watching the new episode of "Chuck"

as you can see the latter makes me want to learn more. maybe i'll check out kua 'aina, or see a new tv show called chuck.

That said I am interested in peoples daily lives, it helps discover new places and things, but unless there's some kind of detail, "eating a burger" is pretty useless to me.

That's why i mentioned this. some people think twitter is all about the vague useless tweets i pointed out, when in fact can be so much more.

And the great thing is it doesn't have to be all about business. It can be lots of things. But since i RUN a business I incorporate both business and pleasure/personal stuff. To each his own.

[scrivener]

Re: I'm all a Twitter!

I was reminded of something I wrote in another space. Perhaps this helps, Matapule?

However, aside from getting frequent updates on what people are doing and thinking and eating (which is cool enough if you have the right mindset), there’s something else going on here, and I think it’s worth investigating. I, like several of my Twitter friends, get updates EVERY TIME someone on my list submits a fewer-than-140-character submission. On my cellular phone. This means that when I’m perusing the photography section at Barnes and Noble, I’ll get updates from Donna, Ryan, Blaine, Jen, and even Donna’s friend Shari, whom I’ve never met, spoken to, or otherwise communicated with in my entire life! I go to dinner, I get updates. Even when I’m in bed I get updates because I don’t use the option to automatically turn them off between set hours (Thanks for waking me up waaaaay too early on Thursday, you inconsiderate friends!).

It's a little bit like when you're home with family. You're in one room doing your thing and others are in other rooms doing their things, but every so often you take a glance in the others' direction just to see what they are up to. You might say a few words or you might not, but you've done quick update just with that little glance. You are aware of the other people even if you aren't involved in what they're doing. Twitter's a lot like that, when it's good.

What’s the big deal? In the same way that instant messaging keeps you connected to others while you’re on the computer even if you don’t really chat, these phone updates keep me connected to others whatever I’m doing, and there’s something magical about that. I might not call Jen up every hour or so just to see what she’s up to, but that doesn’t mean I’m not interested. And when she submits a message saying she’s cruising some website or cleaning up after her kid, I think of her for that one moment. That cannot be meaningless.

Unlike Local Motion, I am more interested in what Ryan's having for lunch or what Neenz is watching on TV than I am in making business contacts or spreading some kind of message. I like Twitter for the same reasons I like HT: it's a community of people I'm interested in. It's not a market. But maybe that's why I'm poor.

[lavagal]

Re: I'm all a Twitter!

I've even been following some folks' tweets today for "progress reports," as one of my Seattle `ukulele-playing band-mates is on O`ahu right now - and she's been meeting up with folks I know from HT.

And to think I could have had lunch with her yesterday. sigh.

[scrivener]

Re: I'm all a Twitter!

I was going to direct you to the "all a-twitter" thread from 2006, but by the time I found it, this thread was already joined to it, so you can maybe catch up for yourself now. I mean catch up on the discussion about what the point is.

I was one of the hesitant ones, and only signed up when @kilinahe called me out, but Twitter has become part of my lifestyle, and for this reason I can say that yes, you are missing out by not signing up. Maybe.

I don't think anyone could have predicted what Twitter was going to become those two and a half years ago, but more than just the microblogging it originally defined, it is changing the way we communicate in a way that Howard Rheingold only had the faintest inkling of. Sure, eBay changed the way we use the web, and so did Amazon, and so did MySpace, but the big difference between those and Twitter is that you take Twitter with you. It is not at all like email, because email is directed right at specific addressees. Twitter goes out to your whole community, and there's always someone out there receiving your message.

Stories of Twitter's long reach and lifesaving capabilities stretch from as silly as someone needing to know where the nearest clean public bathroom is to as helpful as assisting a Twitterer who got lost somewhere in Waikiki (someone on HT, actually) to as dramatic as the graduate student who used it to get himself out of an Egyptian prison.

It is easy to look at Twitter (and other fledgling techonologies) and scoff at how it's being used (I was one of the early scoffers), but it is exciting to see how the people who use that technology change the way it's used, influencing not only its form but its function (Twitter has made several changes based on what people were trying to use it for), which then leads to new and more interesting uses. Will it be the next great marketing tool? A lot of people are counting on it. Is it a way for the Mayor to seem more accessible? Maybe, but I'm not sure anyone's biting. Is it just a silly way to pass the time? The evidence is pointing away from that.

KGMB news is using it in its 5:00 broadcast on weekdays (also broadcast on the web). First, it was simply a way to get immediate feedback from its viewers, but can it be used as a means for the viewers to shape the presentation of the news in real-time? Man, that would be cool to see, not necessarily because we need a thing like that, but what kinds of doors could it open up? There's no way to tell!

As I have mentioned before, most of us who are older scratched our heads in wonder at camera phones. Why in the world would anyone need to take photos with their phones? Put those cam-phones in the hands of young people and find out. I've seen students use it as a mirror when a mirror couldn't be found, I've seen them take pictures of complicated notes on my whiteboard so they could make sure they didn't make any note-taking errors, and I've asked them to send me photos of examples of bad spelling or grammar on signs in public places. Who knows how useful or important any of these is until we actually jump in, swim around in them, and see what works?

I'm not even touching on the McLuhan/Postman perspective, which to me is the most fascinating thing of all. How will Twitter and its ilk, once they become a ubiquitous form of communication, affect cognition? Twitter's limitations already shape what I communicate ABOUT; will it soon affect the way I think?

One Twitter friend, a pastry chef at Longhi's, caught his hand last week in a piece of machinery at work. As soon as it happened, he thought, "I've got to Twitpic this so all my friends can see it!" Again, in this case, not so important, really. But will this kind of thinking lead to something amazing sometime in the future, or maybe something horrific? I'm dying to find out.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: I'm all a Twitter!

I've even been following some folks' tweets today for "progress reports," as one of my Seattle `ukulele-playing band-mates is on O`ahu right now - and she's been meeting up with folks I know from HT.

[pzarquon]

Re: I'm all a Twitter!

Calling Twitter users "twits" is pretty common. And I'm definitely a twit. The usage was so pervasive, it annoyed radio and web personality Leo Laporte back in the service's early days. Why? His brand was "TWiT" (This Week in Tech).

Wow. I first posted about Twitter here in November 2006. (The blog entry referenced in the first post, in which I introduced and reviewed Twitter, is now here.) It's neat to go back and see how the service has grown, stumbled, and grown some more... and how some promising competitors (like Pownce) have come and gone.

Of course, now, it's the next big thing. On it, you'll find Oprah, Martha Stewart, Barack Obama, CNN, The Shaq, Brittney Spears, Guy Kawasaki, Stephen Fry, Neil Abercrombie (and several other members of Congress)...

It's growing at a phenomenal rate, over 1,000% year over year, over 50% month to month as of late. And now, just as the mainstream is hitting it's Twitter stride, all the tech pundits are starting to second-guess and doubt it's future. Long time users are starting to lament the end of an era in typical "there goes the neighborhood" fashion.

Dontcha just love technology?

If you're looking for a simple introduction, the video "Twitter in Plain English" is a great place to start.

[68-eldo]

Re: Twitter?

I think I’m catching on to the vocabulary of this technology.

Twitter as a noun is the network that the messages are sent on.

Twitter as a verb is the act of sending messages by Twitter.

A Tweet is a message sent by Twitter.

A person that sends messages by Twitter is a Twit.

OK so I made the last one up, but hay it might just catch on, not long ago calling some one a geek was an insult. Now people are proud to call themselves geeks. Just kidding folks.

[mel]

Re: Twitter?

I use Twitter to notify my subscribers when my blogs are updated, when I post a new video or photograph, what song(s) I am listening to, an interesting link, a news tip, what I'm listening to on the radio or my iPod... many other things. I sometime send a tweet out to a specific subscriber.

[LocalMotion]

Re: Twitter?

Being a photographer twitter has many useful features for me.

I can share tips and information (along with gaining very valuable tips/info from others), and network with others, ultimately by posting tweets someone might want to read, it becomes another free way of publicity. if someone reads one of my tweets and likes it they might go to my page where they will see what I do, little bio, and a link to my website. I get lots of hits on my website from my twitter account.

The power is in knowing how to use twitter. Just posting only things like 'stuck in traffic' is really useless for twitter, but if you keep it fresh, exciting and enticing it's a good business tool.

you can do searches on twitter for whatever you feel like, as a business you could run a search for keywords about things your business does. from the results you could reply to someone about it, maybe answer a question for them or something, then they in turn might checkout your profile or follow you (which would lead to them probably hitting your website).

This is just one of the many uses of twitter. I didn't understand it much either about a year ago, but it's been great for me once i took the time to find out how twitter could benefit me.

[helen]

Re: Twitter?

Doing text messaging on a cell phone is one way of using Twitter. Another way of sending and receiving Twitter messages is by the web site. Of course there is an issue of how you access that web site, do you use your 2 pound netbook, your iPhone or a standard desktop computer (not that one would lug around a 18 pound mini-tower PC with a 30 pound CRT monitor).

[tutusue]

Re: Twitter?

Aha! Thanks for putting it in perspective for me, Helen. I haven't taken the time to learn how to text...yet! In spite of that, and like matapule, I just don't get the purpose of Twitter other than disseminating important information quickly. I don't get the purpose of learning, via 140 character status updates, that someone is stopped at a red light...or someone just farted...or someone just put on deodorant!

I feel the same way about Facebook, altho' I'm subscribed. I'm there because of it's ability to reunite long lost friends and family. I'm on a roll in that regard!!!

I see PZ's tweets on FB and, afaic, he puts Twitter to great use, warning of traffic jams, available jobs, charitable happenings and..."Today's office breakfast: bananas and M&Ms...". Hey, if it involves chocolate, it's important!

Huh oh, matapule...maybe we're caught in a generation gap?!

[helen]

Re: Twitter?

It depends on the kind of personal electronics you are carrying on you and what you are comfortable with. For instance if you have problems using text messaging on a cell phone then Twitter is not for you.