To Twitter or to Fritter – That is the Question

Twitter is not about sharing your day to day normal actions, like reading the news paper etc.. It is a way to share things of intrest, and keep track of interesting things going on in other peoples lives that you care about.

It is about sharing ones thoughts, dreams, hopes, sharing ones information, and knowledge. It is about connecting with others who share similar intrests that you have, and becoming a dynamic think tank ever growing and expanding.

Its about finding out about events going on in lesser parts of the world that the media do not keep track of, and so much more.

To put it simply Twitter is anything, and everything. It is a abbreviated form of the internet, and all its social media tools.

That’s because your poster has been ingrained with the notion that Twitter, like MySpace, Faceook and all that crap is a SOCIAL NETWORKING site. It is NOT for social networking.

Twitter is a COMMUNICATIONS network.

If that concept is not understood, then the whole point of Twitter is lost. It;s where I get breaking news, events that are happening now (like when Chris, Leo or some other online person has an event), it’s how to ask for help with medical problems, get information on what’s happening with traffic on the Golden gate bridge, an earthquake in China or up the freeway in California, Dell outlet deals, the newest fabrics in quilting, and so much more.

If you think that Twitter is just for social networking, please don’t bother signing up. But if you want to communicate ideas to other people, it’s where you should have been in 2006.

This is a good question and I don’t think you can fully answer “mr media.” The way I see it, people like Twitter for the same reasons they like watching you live. I mean, frankly you’re pretty boring just to watch but some people always ask themselves, “What’s he going to do next?” Same with an active twitter poster. Most things are complete crap, I’d say a good 3/4 but at the same time that also depends who you’re viewing on twitter. If you’re watching a 14 year old girl tweet about the other girls bullying her in school, yeah… That’s boring. Some people might want to read future tech news… Or about some new car getting released. I guess the way I see Mr. Media’s question… The same could be said about blogging. The internet is full of useless information and if he doesn’t like it he probably shouldn’t continue using the internet.

What people fail to realize is that social networking is supposed to reflect our everyday lives … that includes all those stupid and non-important moments of getting up, drinking coffee or waiting in a line to get serviced. Does that make the network itself worthless and non important? I think not. Because as the writer already mentioned more than often you can find tweets about important things.

The million dollar question in my humble opinion, is whether you get heard or not. Let’s say that you have something important to share with your contacts and the world [ because let us not forget that there's this wonderful retweet option available which can really spread the message ] . Will this tweet stand out from the thousands of “ordinary” tweets that are “flooding” a user’s screen at any given moment?

Well it depends… sometimes it will and sometimes it will not. But the amazing thing with twitter is that it takes for just one person to notice that important tweet… and after that BOOM! It’s all over the place!

What i really love about twitter is that even in its non important aspects feels far more right than any other social network i’ve been involved in. If i had to choose between being sent another random request to join a facebook group – and i’m sure i am not the only one getting those requests by the hundreds every week – and having to read my friends’ tweets about today being hot,having a headache or being hungry and have nothing to eat then shoot me but i feel that i’d easily choose the later.

To end this let me say just that. Twitter is the only social network around us that allows us to connect with the user and not with the various services provided by that network. To give an analogy is like going to a coffee shop versus going to a night club. Sure you don’t get the flashy lights or all the cool trendy couches…. but what you get is to sit down and have an everyday life chat… and that includes meaningless chat, important chat and glorious life changing chat! Not to mention that when you “leave the place” you don’t get the buzz from the loud music in your ears ;)

Anyway, i really hope that made sense cause honestly this is how i’m feeling about twitter after using it for quite some time :)

I think it’s all about who you follow and how you use it. For me, I am an ASP.NET developer, so I follow people like Scott Hanselman, Scott Guthrie, Phil Haack, as well as other developers at Microsoft, and thus get breaking news on new technologies and events.

I use it to sometimes keep in quick contact with people I know, and every now and then I’ll use it to communicate something I’ve learned with the people that follow me.

In the end, if you don’t like it, don’t use it. Complaining about not understanding something simply because it exists is completely pointless to me.

“In my eyes, Twitter is a mixed bag. It is fun, definitely. You can post short, silly little messages on a whim if you choose. Five seconds later, you can turn around and post about a life-changing event – one that may impact many thousands of people. It’s not what Twitter “is” or “is not” – it’s what you choose to do with it that makes the difference.”

Best quote and description ever. It makes me sick to see all the Tweets about “marketing this” “make money that” and effective marketing uses for Twitter and schemes to get more followers, and so forth.

Twitter needs to be a place you can go and just post. Not a competition, not a place for folks to try and make money off of the creation of others.

Don’t worry about impressing people with your amount of followers, don’t use Twitter as some marketing strategy or scheme, just have fun with it.

“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.” …

Nobody has communicated to the original poster how useful Twitter can be, whether checking on Chris’ next event, or helping to organize and distribute information about protests in Iran.

Nobody has communicated to the OP’s Twitter buddies that same message, so they think that Twitter means minute updates of what is happening in their lives at that very second, regardless of what mundane task is at hand.

Nobody has communicated to the OP’s Twitter buddies that nobody gives a flying rats patootie that they are eating a tuna sandwich for lunch, or their dog just learned how to catch a Frisbee, or they are constipated.

Nobody has communicated to the OP how to properly use Twitter, filtering out the mundane and constipated, while letting through the important twits.

I fall into the same boat as the OP. Sadly, during my short time on Twitter, my Twitter buddies fell into the “I’m constipated”…. “phew – it all came out in the end” group.

Twitter is like any other tool – use it wisely, and it can do much good. Use it foolishly, and it is a waste. I will not use Twitter again until I learn to use it properly.

In life everyone seems to ‘label’ everyone and everything. Life was not given to us so that we could decide how everyone should live it and judge them accordingly. Its crazy, but this is how twitter is. Some people say, “Twitter is not for your to post your monotonous daily life.” “Others say it’s for news” EVeryone has their opinion. I personally think everyone should stop being so opinionated. Get on Twitter for WHATEVER YOU WANT IT FOR. Just be respectful to others. And those that DON’T want news or business, or whatever, than don’t add them. But quit assuming you know what Twitter is for. The bottom line is Twitter is for each individual to enjoy or use as they see fit as long as its in a respectful manner.PERIOD. That is my personal opinon Chris. The judgement over something so minor as Twitter is ridiculous. But you didn’t tell US what YOU think Twitter is for?

I have replaced my RSS reader with twitter. All the blogs I used to be notified via RSS now post updates to their Twitter accounts.
I also tend to use Twitter for business related updates and keep the social networking part of things for Facebook.
The one thing I would like to suggest is that if you don’t have anything that adds value to the Twitter experience for your followers then you should probably not Tweet.

Sturgeon’s Law. Pure and simple.

Though in the cases of the blogosphere and Twitter, I’d amend Sturgeon’s Law to “99.9999% of everything is sh*t.”

I’m afraid I have to agree with Mr. Modem. I see absolutely no use personally for twitter, facebook or myspace. But that’s me. I’d rather that people didn’t know about my personal events, however mundane or earth-shattering. I can see the benefits regarding raising social awareness about something in quick fashion, but even if I did have some important news, or a cause to promote, I doubt I would use any of these outlets to accomplish that task. Maybe I’m just old-fashioned, but I’ll stick with a phone call or e-mail.

Hello,

At work, we have been playing with Twitter as a technology for customer notifications. It seems to be working and response so far seems to be fairly positive.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

Saying Twitter is for this or that is like giving someone a piece of paper and saying you can’t do anything but write on it. No typing, printing, drawing, painting, cutting, folding, etc. You can only use black pen and you have to write about dirt, because nothing else is important enough to write about.

What kind of world would this be if we only used things the way other people told us to? The way we’re supposed to? It’d be pretty damn bland and boring if you ask me.

Invention, creativity and inspiration come from everything, even those mundane thoughts. You may learn a quicker way to wash the dishes if you post that’s what you’re doing and someone else responds, this is what I do, you try it and it works! Dishes done in 5 instead of 15. That IS important. Or someone may say they’re having a tuna sandwich, you’re looking for inspiration for a new cartoon character and there you have it. Talking Tuna Sub. Not every idea has to be earth chattering for it to be useful. And further, most earth shattering ideas don’t start out being so grand. They often come from people talking about regular everyday things that they want to improve on.

I think in general we over look the mundane things in life, but those are the most important. It’s those things that get us through everyday so we can come up with earth shattering ideas. Twitter can bring a new awareness to these things, and in the process, make you more aware of your actions, thoughts and how you interact with other people. Twitter can bring awareness to ANYTHING.

With twitter, if you don’t want to hear me, you don’t have to, just like I don’t have to hear you if I don’t want to. You choose who you follow, so choose people you want to listen to. Even if they are following you, you don’t have to follow back. Don’t tell people what they’re writing about is not important enough to be written about, don’t read it if you don’t like it. It’s like a global opt-in selective chat room.

My only advice about Twitter? Think before you tweet.