Twitter - Not as Lame as I Thought

"Having Frosted Flakes for Breakfast"

"So You Think You Can Dance with @zeny"

"Loving sunny day number 4 this summer"

"New Shoes = Heaven"

"Forgot to pack a lunch today, oops"

My step dad recently sent me this article about Twitter telling me that it was pretty interesting and I should give it a read.  I hesitated, but a rainy day and a sore throat gave me nothing better to do.  Now, through gritted teeth, I am writing to tell the world that Twitter is not as lame as I once was convinced of.

I joined Twitter for practical purposes to be about to 'tweet' about a client and get their product out there in the twitterverse.  However, I never really 'twit' (?) about myself and my grande lattes or bad hair days (like the realistic comments above).  My friends who did made me laugh and about once a week, I would sign on to see what they had been saying all week.  Without a mobile phone with internet capabilities and constant Twitter access, I didn't get into it... ignorance is bliss right?

However, after reading this smart article, I am eating my words and rolling eyes about the internet sensation.  People once reacted the way I did to Twitter about Blogger and CLEARLY I don't see the problem with a blog.  Blogs scared people because they worried that people's attention spans would decrease to only enjoy short paragraphs and their desire for hard news would decrease as well.  Twitter only further expands this fear, with its 140 character limit for each 'tweet.'  The skeptic reaction to these internet communication trends is that we will soon be limited to only one punctuation mark to express emotion virally.  Today I am "!"  Tmrw I will be "."  (Guess why.)  However, now that I am no longer ignorant, this is why Twitter deserves some credit:

• It's like a 'suspension bridge made out of pebbles' allowing you to build a substantial thought out of 140 character statements
• The 140 characters are the SMS platform limit - used to make Twitter instant (from cell phones)
• Creates an alternative to the "Hey, What's up?" phone call - doesn't do away with it 
• Has a search component to follow a specific topic - i.e. strawberries (What are chefs, farmers, legislators saying about your favorite fruit today, now?)  This is brilliant because rather than competing with Googles legitimacy-ranked search, it provides 'real-time' answers about the current perception of the topic of your search
  
• TinyURLs - make 140 character limits limitless when you can supply a billion dollar document in a link with a short message... called a 'pointing devise'
• Some governments have begun tracking Twitter to see areas of flu/cold in order to protect their citizens
• Activists use Twitter to plan events without otherwise immediate punishment - this is good/bad depending on where you stand, but it does show that Twitter can be a useful tool for more than light conversation {China has blocked access to Twitter for this reason, so much for those billions of users}
• Allows @replies to any user (yes, even the White House and Oprah) - truly Global communication and changing our concept of the secluded 'celebrity'

Most interesting about Twitter is that the quickly developed system was not solely created by TwitterHQ.  In fact, it was designed to allow users to build off of its platform and create more useful tools for the system to better serve the public - like the @reply.

Twitter allows people to see a 'collage' of tweets on ones home-page (personalized of course) - friends, businesses, celebrities, etc.  By choosing to 'follow' someone, you receive a live feed of his or her tweets.  This, combined with the search component, allows for a national conversation.  While they aren't in the form of living room chats around the news station - they are open, diverse and specialized to one's interest.    

       

So while you'll never catch me 'tweeting' about my cereal choice in the morning or letting you know I just stepped in a giant puddle, I DO appreciate the 'real-time search', the tinyURL component, the user expansion option to redevelop the site at any given point, and the dare it presents people to say something of value to the twitterverse in a mere 140 characters.  Tweet on.