Why do people Twitter? Really, I can't figure it out.

I've never really gotten it either. It's like Facebook status updates on crack.

[quote="Marekenshin"]I've never really gotten it either. It's like Facebook status updates on crack.[/quote]

That's the point though. Ever heard of the term/idea "infornography?" It's like that. It's for people who have information lust.

It's like...
Why do I check Instant Music, Digg, Buzzfeed, Google Reader, and Facebook multiple times a day? Because to me, it feels good to stay up to date and "plugged in" to news around the world, news about my friends, news about my interests.

I'll admit: There's very little interesting content going on at IM nowadays. Really. It's becoming inundated with pointless posts, pointless threads, and very little worthwhile discussion. Even the pillows board is boring, we're just rehashing the same top 10 crap over and over. But I will still check the active topics more than once a day, because 1) it's easy 2) it's addictive.

So if people use Twitter like they're supposed to (multiple updates a day), and you have a good circle of followers and people that follow you...it can be pretty cool, I think. I'm not quite there, but it's getting there. It's just another rapid-fire feed of information.

It's lame when people are mundane and irrelevant with their updates (shit like "I'm tired." "I have so much homework.").
But it's good when people are interesting and personal with their updates (links to new youtube videos, assorted links, "Snowing here in Seattle!", "Valkyrie was alright," "Flight of the Conchords are coming May 11/12!")

Here's an interesting article on it: http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life ... 747308.ece

Sure, there might be a bit of narcissism involved. If people didn't want attention, they wouldn't Tweet. And sure, not all Tweets are profound and thoughtful...

But if you're connected to people you care about, your friends, a few key people in the tech industry (twitter.com/kevinrose, twitter.com/scobleizer) it can be pretty cool.

I think if you only approach it with the idea of "Ugh, Twitter is so POINTLESS..." you're ignoring a lot of what it can offer. Anyway, I'm just getting into it. If either Sheer or Mare had accounts, I'd for sure follow em. Would I really cherish the information of "Marekenshin: OH MY GOD, HACKER-PSCHORR IS AWESOME" Not [i]particularly[/i]. But if it pops up on my laptop, or if I'm checking Twitter on my phone...there it goes, into my infornography bank. I'll keep an eye out for the beer, perhaps, and I'll :3 because Alan is a drunkard.

I have a Twitter account, and that's the thing. What now? I don't know, and no matter how many times I ask this question, and no matter how many answers I receive, I still don't know. It still doesn't make any sense.

Following notable people (i.e. celebrities, insiders, etc.) or news websites (i.e. CNN, BBC, etc.) makes sense, but aside from that, nothing else does. Why do I want to hear from twitteruser123? And if I wanted to hear from such people, how do I do it? There doesn't appear to be a "you might be interested in this person" function, or a forum whereby to meet others. As such, you can only follow a) famous people, b) people you already know, and c) people who know people you already know. It sounds rather inane to me.

On the posting end, how often can one find something interesting to say? And who is going to read it? You can't really carry on conversations in Twitter, like on an internet forum. You don't really have a subject to commend upon, like Digg or reddit. You basically have to fabricate something, and judging by how many threads I have started on IM (hint: it's probably between 10 and 20, if that many), there's really nothing for me to say.

Yeah, it would be great to get all four people I probably know who use Twitter to follow each other (and their random messages), but that's all it is then, isn't it? Building upon what Mare said, they took the least-useful-most-inane part of Facebook and made a website out of it. Oh, except Facebook is a useful networking tool where you can actually find friends and meet new (or old) people. Last I checked, you can't do a high school search on Twitter. So what am I missing?

[quote="GoldenRhino"]Would I really cherish the information of "Marekenshin: OH MY GOD, HACKER-PSCHORR IS AWESOME" Not [i]particularly[/i]. But if it pops up on my laptop, or if I'm checking Twitter on my phone...there it goes, into my infornography bank. I'll keep an eye out for the beer, perhaps, and I'll :3 because Alan is a drunkard.[/quote]

:3

Awwwwwwwwwwwwww

I don't know, I prefer sites where you communicate back and forth more indepth I guess.

What's Twitter? *runs to google*


Oh, that's stupid. Apparently someone just has a lot of free time.

You follow people by going to their page, and clicking "Follow." It's right under their user icon.

Did you guys see the video that's at the home page? Sign out, and click "Watch a video!" http://twitter.com/
It lays it out pretty well.

And I think there's more slightly interesting stuff that comes across than you might think. Maybe not, but I'm always running into good stories on Digg, things I get forwarded forwarded from my dad, random pics across the internet. You can post the link, use tinyurl.com to make it shorter (sometimes it tinyurlss it for you). And while it's hard to keep or track a long running conversation, you CAN respond to people, by typing "@soandso your message."

I guess there are two ways to look at it.

1) Another information stream, getting updated about things going on, things people might have a decent interest in.
2) As the video puts it, Twitter allows people to sort of...see the in between bits of peoples' lives. Check the video, it explains it better than I can. Essentially, when you compile the mundane stuff (Well, stuff more specific than "I just ate breakfast") then you can sort of get a view into someone's life that goes beyond the occasional Facebook status update or forum post.

Yeah, you can pretty much get all that Twitter does and more done in Facebook. But if people used Facebook's status updates like they're supposed to use Twitter, things would get really messy really fast. So yeah.

I sort of understand, but as a perpetual Digger/redditor, news from Twitter would just be inferior. As far as following people goes, how do I pick people to follow? Just navigate to a random person and say, "Oh, let's follow this person," and that's that? I would feel like a stalker following random females, and I would feel uninterestedly awkward following random males. It is much easier to befriend people through a common interest (say, the pillows), but there is no such search feature or group feature. Otherwise, it would just be populated with people I know, of which only 2 probably use Twitter. That's not much to follow.

Yeah, just like Facebook, Twitter is one of those things that can be kinda lame if none of your friends are using it. But once people start to hop on the bandwagon, you can better realize its value.

Double the post, double the fun!

This is what happens when your friends on Twitter don't use it very much...but you have ONE friend that DOES use it properly:
[img]http://s5.tinypic.com/245ad7l.jpg[/img]

Basically Twitter is my means of communicating to an old friend from middle school, Louisa. I have some friends that check up on their accounts, but Louisa's really the only active-active person.

I will continue, in hopes that my friends catch on. She's a nice girl.

Louisa. I was wondering why Lou looked like a girl.

And I'm sorry, but buying a 15MP point-and-shoot camera is simply inane.

Funny enough, they gave a special on Twitter on NBC news. They talked about how or what it is. Seems stupid, I mean you can tell anyone what you're doing. So apparently you're THAT important that you have to tell someone what you're doing every time you do something? Only for people who desperately want to tell their pretend friends what they are doing.

I'm from the fucking livejournal generation. Like I got mine in 2001. So I get the twitter concept. It's LJ for people on Meth.




Like me.

I would have thought it was LJ/Xanga/etc. in small doses, but I guess it is far more accessible than a blog. However, there are those who write large entries every day in their blogs, and that doesn't seem feasible in Twitter.

Anyway, how about everyone post their Twitter accounts?

I...don't know mine at the moment, but I may figure it out later.