Facebook is the current “web-fad” with young people today – you know, the new myspace. Everyone who is anyone has one, heck, even those who aren’t anyone have one. One small part of Facebook is it’s integrated status message system – a simple way to let your buddies know what your doing right now, just for kicks. But I’m not here to talk to you about Facebook, as addicting as it may be. My latest web addiction of choice, Twitter, takes this whole idea of status messages one step further – instead of just a back-water feature, status messages are Twitter. All sorts of people have accounts – from Leo LaPorte to John Gruber – and I have befriended them all. This is a tale of my Twitter addiction.
The Story
I signed up for Twitter on January 15 without much of a clue what it actually was. I wanted it to be a private message system to let some close friends know what I was doing, but hardly any joined and those that did didn’t used it much. After one update, I was tired from the lack of interactivity and gave it up for a month. Coming back to it, I wanted to see what others had to say. I posted about it on the TAB forums, and Phil showed me his great blog post which highlights how he uses Twitter as an all encompassing status message for his IM and blog. I again tried out Twitter, but with little success – just a few short posts here and there, but nothing that would make me stay.
The revelation came when I got a notification that I got a new friend on Twitter. Several TAB users added me, and I subsequently added them back. More and more came and it was brilliant. We were sharing quick information bytes and just generally interacting. We even used it once or twice to start up impromptu IRC meetings. Great stuff, I say. This is really the heart and soul of Twitter – the friends system. Getting quick text snippets that one of your friends is grabbing a cup of coffee or going on a trip is such a great idea, I don’t know why someone didn’t think of it before.
The bottom line is: Twitter isn’t for those who aren’t prepared to slug it out till you get some friends. It’s not going to be that fun or addictive if no one is watching what you say. But as soon as you got a few people that are following you, you’re golden.
Once you have a Twitter account (which is free – try it today!), how do you go about updating?
The Tools of the Trade
Twitter allows you to update your status in a variety of ways – through a web interface, through your IM client, through your mobile phone, or through a 3rd party software package. I like the latter option, and go with a great app called Twitterrific from the fantastic guys at IconFactory. It’s a gorgeous app that sits in my menu bar and allows me to quickly update my own Twitter or see what my friends are doing. It’s beautiful in it’s simplicity.
I also have my mobile set up to update Twitter. Although SMS costs some money, sometimes I can’t resist doing an offline update, just because I can. Oh, the choices!
Epilogue
Although the whole idea of Twitter is relatively simple, there are 101 (and more) ways that you could think of using this great service. With features being added as time goes on, I’m sure it can only get better. I’m going to end this with a little comic I got via a Twitter post by Amber MacArthur (of Torrent and Call for Help fame) which I find hilarious. Enjoy!
Filed under: Tech | 3 Comments
Your comments on Twitter are dead on. I’ve seen a great deal of backlash about the service these last few weeks. Comments like “Twitter is a total waste of time”, and “Twitter is crap!”.
As you deftly point out, these are people who have no friends on Twitter and as such, cannot see the benefits. But you are dead on. Once you have a few friends, it grabs hold of you and won’t let go. I’d be nice if those nay-sayers would get some friends, but even if they don’t, that’s okay. More Twitter bandwidth for the rest of us.
IT IS NOT AN ADDITCTION!
I REFUSE TO LET IT BECOME THAT
I REFUUSSEEEE
~holly
What can I do with Twitter?