Nelson's Weblog: culture / twitter-life

Twitter in my life

I've only recently appreciated how much Twitter is a part of my life. A lot of folks I explain Twitter to say "huh? that seems frivolous". That was my reaction, too. But now that Twitter is a daily part of my life I really like it. Here's some ways Twitter has enhanced my life recently:

My old friend Richard was in SF recently. I didn't know until he twittered that he was at his dentist, so I twittered him back "you're a mile away from me. come for a glass of wine". Great casual reunion.
I needed to get rid of some old computer gear. I twittered a request for suggestions and my friend Ned responded wtih good advice.
Twitter search was a great way to keep up with chatter at the Start08 conference.
I use Twitter frequently as a replacement for SMS. Much easier to remember usernames than phone numbers.
Twitter in the background on my computer gives me a casual way to stay connected with friends.

One thing that surprises me about my use of Twitter is that it's almost exclusively a way for me to stay in contact with people I already know. I don't really have new Twitter friends. I do have one friend who meets new people via Twitter. The key thing there is the iPhone app Twinkle shows him tweets from other people near him; he's trying to meet people in a new country so English tweets near him get his attention.

Also I almost never use Twitter as a mobile app. It's all computer desktop for me (with Twhirl). I do get SMS notification for direct tweets but I quickly found it irritating to see all my friends' updates on my phone. OTOH I frequently load my Twitter home page on my iPhone's web browser.

My favourite thing about Twitter is it's low obligation. Small updates free me from the need to be eloquent, and the ephemeral nature of tweets means missing some is no big thing. It enhances my social life without being complex.

I'm an advisor to Twitter but this post is my sincere, personal thoughts

culture
2008-08-31 01:39 Z


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