Does anyone actually use Twitter? If you don’t know what it is, it’s best described as an entire website based on Facebook’s status message feature. You sign up, you have a friends list, and then you have a friends page that consists of all your friends’ statuses. The statuses are all short since the site imposes a maximum limit of 140 characters. Not only can you update your status online, but you can also update it with a text message from your phone, giving all your Twitter friends instant coverage of the homeless guy you just saw or the amazing sale going on at Macy’s. The New York Times calls it “one of the fastest-growing phenomena on the Internet”. It’s been around for 2 years now. Wiki says everybody uses it, including the presidential candidates and CNN.
Am I missing something here? When I want to read CNN, there’s this awesome site called CNN.com that lets me read more than 140 characters of news. I don’t feel compelled to send a text message and update my Twitter friends everytime I’m about to use the bathroom. “omg just got caught at a red light wait it’s green now bbl”.
Before you accuse me of “you just don’t get it until you try it”, I did sign up. You are free to find me and subscribe to my statuses, but it’s more likely that hell will freeze over before I use the site again. There’s a public log of all the messages people have put up, here are some gems:
- berylfrohriep i dont ever want to drink ever ever ever again.
- MrsChantlah When I see the name “Bobby” I read it as “Booby” everytime.
- nerdygirl55 I need to take a shower. But I would really rather be reading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
- charlielester angelina had the twins
- mikedobbs Now I’m eating a metro fresh turkey sand, chips, coke, and I’m now addicted to twitter, Hmm good.
I think status messages are a great feature on a larger site like Facebook, but having a service completely dedicated to it? Overkill doesn’t even begin to describe what I think of that. I guess the one pro is that I’ll take 140 character mini-messages about nothing over five page rants (with pictures included) about nothing, any day of the week.
If I’m incredibly mistaken and Twitter is actually the best website ever since MySpace, then please let me know what you use it for. I’d hate to be missing out. Really.
Update: Penny-Arcade sums up this post in three panels.