Ian MacBean

I’ve been on Twitter for just about 2 months now, and on average, I post just under six times, add one new reader and follow 2.5 more people daily. And while I haven’t evangelized it to the point of adding many new users to the site - Peder being the likely exception - I certainly have made people aware of it. Whereas when I used to pick up the phone and immediately be accused of texting, now I’m accused of Twittering. Progress.

It’s a hard tool to figure out, because it’s not meant specifically for anything. When I first saw it, it struck me as being a slightly larger GChat tagline, meaning that the out-of-context sentence fragments and song lyrics I so frequently posted under my name there could now be expanded into 140 characters. More depth, but still no context. I saw other uses for it as well: as a social gathering tool (this usage made famous by the 2007 SxSW Twitter explosion) or KPBS’s emergency broadcast system during the 2007 San Diego fires. And then, as I grew into it more and more, other uses emerged: JetBlue uses it as a customer relations tool. Deron Williams of the Utah Jazz uses it for brief summaries of the upcoming or just-finished game (assuming it is actually him).

Woot publishes their deal of the day there, and I’m sure there are many other businesses using it as well to get their name or message out, in addition to the massive flux of microblogging individuals. I’ve even heard of someone using it to publish a book, a few lines at a time. None of which makes “It’s a microblogging system, where you can publish up to 140 characters and anyone who wants to can follow you” any more digestible to the uninitiated. My early argument was one I recently found echoed in the Twitter User’s Guide (published by the Zappo’s CEO, of all people) - four years ago, no one in this country was using text messaging, so let’s not be afraid of new technologies and ideas for implementation.

I still would be hard-pressed to categorize how I use my Twitter. I try to refrain from random song lyrics and keep it to brief thoughts that illuminate my day and the world around me, such as witty retorts to young panhandlers or updates about upcoming shows in my area. I’ve also been able to reconnect with old friends and deepen friendships with new ones. Will it ever be a killer app? I think so. There are kinks to work out with how you receive messages - it is nice to be able to get them direct to phone or IM, but also incredibly annoying sometimes to get that many pings each day - and a lot of the real functionality as far as group communication is lost to me until more of my meatspace friends embrace it. But if you acknowledge it for what it is - a platform for brief messages, open to whomever cares to follow along, with no real rules - I think it’s clear from Twitter’s growth and the number of complimentary technologies emerging alongside that there is some there there.