I’m curious. . .do any of you use Twitter?
I heard about it for a long time before I finally signed up for an account and even then it took me months to stop thinking “I don’t get this. What in the world is the point?”
If you aren’t familiar with Twitter, it’s just a web application where you write status updates, limited to 140 characters or less. And yes, it does seem kind of pointless to have a spot solely for the purpose of saying “Traffic is making me tear my hair out” or “My cheerios got soggy too quickly today, and it made me sad.”
On the other hand, though, it is very handy for writing things that need to be shared but don’t necessarily warrant an entire blog post: “I found $20 in my coat pocket. Indian take-out tonight!” (Sadly, that was an example; I did not find $20 in my coat pocket. On the upside, I’m not wearing a coat either).
People also use it as a place to notify their followers when they’ve posted on their blogs or to find other people with similar interests or to ask “Who is that guy in that one movie about that girl with a cat?” and get an almost instant response.
Yesterday, the ALA Youth Media awards (Newberys, etc.) had a live Twitter feed, so you could refresh it every few seconds and see what had won. This was very handy, since I was sort of in class while they were being announced. It also would have been more handy if the Twitter feed hadn’t died half way through.
While the awards were being announced, many book bloggers/tweeters were firing off updates about their thoughts on the awards: “The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks got a Printz nod. Hooray!” or “Can you believe The Hunger Games got zero love?” It was all sorts of fun.
So, do you use it? Have you heard about it but don’t understand the hype? Or are you shaking your head at this post wondering what in the blazes I’m rambling on about today?
Why aren’t you wearing a coat?!! It is FREEZING cold outside today! 🙂
Well, you KNOW I Twitter, since we’re friends and all 🙂
I’ve been on there for almost two years. Weird.
I love Twitter. It’s just little blurbs, but it’s fun to get those from friends, especially when a phone call wouldn’t really be necessary. (I do love my phone calls, but sometimes you just don’t have that much to say.)
And I “tweet” from my phone, so no computer necessary!
I use it and just began to follow you 🙂
Sometimes I update it a few times a day, and sometimes I forget about it for a week…
I agree about using it for lesser blog topics, but I fear I would get too addicted to it. I already spend enough time compulsively checking my reader.
I used to and I even had it linked to my Facebook for awhile, but I never remembered to actually go to Twitter, so I just deleted my account the other day.
i use it, but most of the time i forget to twitter! i get so entertained reading other people’s tweets that i forget i should contribute every now and then. i thought it was kinda pointless at first, but sometimes it’s nice to be able to tell someone about your unruly Cheerios!
i never even heard of it until you posted this! but like TheMoncurs, i can’t do it! i am sure that it is fabulous. cool stuff about the book info! someday i will check it out. i am just barely figuring out facebook!