This is a sample of Twitter content:
|
moriza I'm in transit |
|
egspoony At Local Option... Phone battery is dead though. |
|
luxuryluke heading back to the fridge for another Urquell and the freezer for a pint glass. |
|
scottstys Recording Barnuts Saturday night around 830PST. Want to guest? Email me |
|
jesmc @MsHerr: interview for what and we should chat about flights |
|
dave_robinson MSP very nasty great soundtrack though |
|
BleuCaldwell @leahjones Yay! I'm headed in now... |
|
nisyura99 @Cusinart おはよーです！ |
There is a lot of hype about this micro blog or one way instant messaging service called Twitter. You can send short text messages from AIM, Facebook, your phone, your blog, email and recently even from Second Life (another over hyped piece of software). Who has time to read these blurbs? How do these people have the time to send messages about their mundane daily tasks?
There is a new service called Pownce that is similar, but has the ability to send stuff (messages, links, files, and events). It is in beta now and you have to be invited as they grow and develop the product. It appears to be more practical than Twitter, but I can still do the same things with email which everyone I know uses.
Sometimes I think we have become over-saturated with technology and now we are seeing new developments with technology just for the sake of technology or making something "new". However, that "new thing" does not necessarily make life easier, more interesting, more fun or better in some way. This is not the type of thing you would expect on a technology blog. It may be that I am old enough to remember a time when there was no Internet, e-mail, MP3 players, PDA's, digital cameras, or for that matter home computers.
I like technology with a purpose, a utility, a practical function or a tangible benefit. For example, rsync, a terrific backup program. I could list many other applications, even games which offer entertainment and relief from stress. However, when it comes to Twitter, it is just not worth the effort for the payback at least for me. I think Twitter may be a niche fad.
15 October 2007, 09:41
I'm pretty sure that's what they said about Blogging, to begin with.
It's faster than email and it's more global than texting to a single person -- the whole world can know what you're up to. You can put the badges all over and it explains what you're doing.
Some people are using it for other purposes, as well, like writing proverbs, song lyrics, the first lines of novels.
For 140 characters at a time, you can put anything in there, including use it as a sort of 'storage space' for interesting URLS or as a 'to do' list.
Just because the tech doesn't look interesting or useful to *you* doesn't mean it isn't interesting or useful, in general.
Don't fall off the tech train, Ed -- it's a long walk to the future!
Ten years ago, did you ever think you'd be 'blogging'?
That being said, *Twitter* is a fairly silly piece of software -- people just really love to let the world know precisely what they're doing at any given point in time.
15 October 2007, 09:41
Are your comments auto-modded?
15 October 2007, 10:07
What kind of proverb, novel or song lyric are you going to post in 140 characters. I would be hard pressed to fit a haiku in a 140 characters. Maybe I'm just too long winded for Twitter or not enough of a narcist to announce to the world a blow by blow of what I am doing throughout the day. No, I did not think I would be blogging 10 years ago nor did I think I wold be prohibiting my daughters from creating a MySpace page.
No, there is not auto-mod feature.
19 January 2008, 11:28
I am far from being a Luddite, but I too don't see the point of Twitter. Perhaps when someone comes up with a compelling Use Case for it, I'll take a second look. Right now it seems more like a nuisance than anything else.