Twitter mania is here. In fact, you know it's gone mainstream because (a) it's in the Wall Street Journal (b) early adopters have already decided it's over. To recap, Twitter is a service that combines IMing, social networking and mobile technology. Twitter members use their PCs or a cellphone to send short messages about their whereabouts and what they're doing. The messages are broadcast to everyone in a Twitter member's network. Unlike texting, there's a cap on the number of characters allowed, but no limits on the number of messages you can send.
It's useless and addictive.
But it's easy to dismiss Twitter until you place it in the wider context of youth trends. Twitter, Google-owned Dodgeball, and Finnish newcomer Jaiku are all part of a growing presence broadcasting or lifestreaming trend. Flickr, MySpace, and even blogging can be considered part of the same phenomenon. For today's teens and twenty-somethings, you are less defined by your consumption habits, and more the sum-total of your digital footprint. I blog, therefore I am. Sites like Twitter strike me as merely the first salvo in the evolution of tools that allow for continuous public self-expression.
Misha Cornes
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threeminds predicts
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Strategists & Planners
Comments (4)
I signed up 6 months ago at start. I don't use it because the design asks me to say "what are you doing?" instead of a more open-minded "what would you like to say?".
I have friends and acquaintances that use the service in a variety of ways, thus escaping the defined boundaries. To me, the system is a very cool IM concept. I'm just not bought on the additional time sacrifices I'd have to make to keep up with other people's random blurbs and for me to inundate others with my own.
Posted on April 10, 2007 16:43
Something I do quite often - sign up for blog feeds to be delivered by email via Feedblitz - was a different experience for me today.
The process used to be: got the the Feedblitz website, paste the blog's rss feed address into the field, hit "submit", input the scrambled numbers that protect from spammers and yay, another blog feed.
Today I had an additional question to answer. Do I want it delivered by email or Twitter?
Posted on April 11, 2007 01:42
I have to say, Twitter is the first thing to come along in a while that I just don't immediately get and want to jump in and try. It really seems like a teens and twenty-somethings tool. You need a fair amount of attention bandwidth, peer-enfatuation, and tech savvy/tolerance to engage in. I'd be curious to hear from actual users how they use it and what they like about it.
Posted on April 11, 2007 14:30
lets not forget about the similarities to sugar candy from nyu itp.
www.sgrcndy.com
Posted on April 12, 2007 12:40