What’s the point of Twitter?

by Charlie Peverett in At home on 29.05.08

“Pointless fad.”

“Just how vain do you have to be?”

“Can’t think of anything more boring”

And so on and so forth read the common reactions to the rise of Twitter, the foremost example of the phenomenon that is micro-blogging.

Ok, hands up. I was one of the naysayers. I’ve dismissed it like some knee-jerk pub bore, rolled my eyes and uttered something lazy along the lines of “this internet thing’s gone too far”.

Perhaps the scepticism is strongest in those of us who remember pre-internet fads. We remember “revolutionary” phenomena that would rise out of nowhere driven by little more than a clever marketing gimmick only to sink without trace a little while later.

But the internet, increasingly, works very differently. And what the rise of web phenomena such as Twitter tells us is that when a lot of people are doing something on the internet, they’re probably onto something.

Trying out Twitter

The best explanation of how Twitter came about is this recent video by Common Craft.

However, it focuses exclusively on Twitter’s use as a “status update” tool - answering the question: “what are you doing?” in messages of 140 characters or less.

This is the bit that a lot of people seem to find hateful. Do you really want to know the minutiae of anyone’s daily activities, even those of your nearest and dearest? Perhaps only in the early stages of lust. Or if one of you has gone a bit Fatal Attraction.

But of course status updates are just words. And as such they can be made to do a lot of things beyond telling the world that you’ve just been to the loo.

Five non-narcissistic ways to use Twitter

* Organise stuff amongst friends: “I’m going to be at XXX for lunch”

* Dump random observations or ideas in one place, from wherever you are

* Keep up with breaking news, follow a conversation or just receive surreal stuff without clogging up your email inbox

* Update your website or blog quickly, from anywhere, with fresh content

* If you work on your own, link up with other remote workers and use Twitter to ask advice or have a rant

Like a lot of web stuff, using Twitter is the best way to understand it - and it’s not a lot of hassle. Follow Rafe Needleman’s excellent Newbie’s Guide to Twitter to get yourself started.

IMAGE by Flickr user SuperFantastic