Twitter -- Why?

[yendi]

I've been playing with Twitter for a few days (my username, of course, is Yendi), and I can see how it can be fun for a little bit. But I'm not sure I get the mass levels of obsession over it. I mean, the ability to quickly say, "I'm heading into the shower" is something that is A) unnecessary, and B) already available in LJ, Blogger, and even AIM (via the away message). That said, I could see how it might be useful in a very limited context (liveblogging a speech, etc).

But I don't buy any of these arguments. Using Twitter to get questions answered? I can't think of a less worthy tool. Twitter limits the length of the question itself (thus meaning anything that requires a lengthy explanation is useless), and doesn't have any sort of interactivity. The only way it could be useful is if I also read the tweets* of anyone who might respond. But even if that's the case, unless I read those tweets in a short period of time, I'm likely to have missed those responses. There's no direct two-way communication.

Compare to LJ (or any blog interface). I ask a question (like, say, "why the fuck would anyone want to use Twitter for work?"). I can make my question as long as I'd like. I can add details, examples, etc. And if anyone has an answer, they can post in in the comments to my post, thus creating a threaded discussion, something that's infinitely easier to follow.

Likewise, why use Twitter (which offers no communities or groups) for collaboration or conference discussions when a blog or a message board would work instead?

I don't hate Twitter the way some folks do; I think the tech itself is nifty, and I can see it eventually expanding enough, feature-wise, to become much more useful as a work or social tool. But I just don't buy that it's there yet. Even the practical things -- the Woot feed, the weather info, the BBC headlines -- are all items that come through in my RSS reader much more efficiently.

*And aren't we all glad they settled on the long "E" instead of an "AH" sound for the messages?

Comments

[amokk]

So people who use twitter are collectively called twits then?

[amokk]

Apparently they are twits, since this one promotes twitter for "microblogging". (link NSFSP)

[kizlj.livejournal.com]

well, anne (the author of that wwd piece) is trying to build a business around consulting on professionalizing online networking and other such gizmigos. so it's in her interest to make a case for things like twitter. I'm lukewarm on it. I find the more work people I put on my twitter the less I like it.

[laurel]

I can see some good uses for Twitter but it all seems to add up to having multiple accounts or that they need to have some sort of filters like LJ has.

One cool way of using it would be if most of your local social circle uses it. Easy enough to send a quick IM or message from your cell phone or web browser to say "heading over to First Avenue now" or "going to the 7:35pm showing of 300" or stuf flike that. To enable meeting up with friends. That way your note would get to them in IM or on their phone or on their computer in some other way. Quick and easy like. Would also be good for meetups at cons, as it was apparently as SXSW.

Another cool aspect is getting to know a bit more about the daily routines of online and/or offline friends.

And I'm thinking of using a separate account for TV picks to basically say "what I'm watching" so people can watch that feed or get those twits if they really are interested in that sort of thing. Or look at the archive. Sure, I could do that in a weblog or journal, but that's overkill for posts that might be three words long.

So far the people I read use it in different ways. Some really update constantly on minutia, others only update if they've something funny to say, others use it when they're out and about, etc.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

Haven't used it, haven't read arguments for or against. It sounds like the sort of thing that might be extremely useful for mobile internet and meeting up and stuff, in place of text messages on mobile phones.

Except, um, over here we have, you know, text messages on mobile phones.

In general I like things that are text-based better than things that require me to look at pictures or videos; pictures I'll look at sometimes, but videos are almost always skipped, because my "reading LJ" mode is very much a reading thing, not a watching thing. But I have no idea if Twitter is actually completely text-based, or whether someone somewhere will make it do pictures.

Picture SMS stuff pisses me off too, for the record.