There are a lot of social networking sites online. Myspace and Facebook being two of the most popular. In the last year tons of social sites have popped up online - many with a specific focus or target audience. I get the concepts of Myspace and Facebook and like using both. It helps me keep in touch with friends and relatives and is very interactive. Adding photos, blogs and posting comments to pages is fun. Reconnecting with old friends is a blast. Having another means to communicate is useful.
One site I do not understand is Twitter. This is not to say the site is not appealing to its users - I seem to see more and more people talking about Twitter online. I am also seeing lots of sites that link to and from Twitter and help you update or send your content to other sites, phones, etc.
But I still don’t get the appeal. Twitter is a very focused social network site. Like Myspace and Facebook it is free and you can build up a group of “friends” both people you know and those you meet online. Where it differs, and it does differ greatly is that users post quick blurbs about what they are doing at any given moment. I guess the best way to sum it up is that Twitter is a mini-blog of sorts where you post a quick one or two sentence blurb about something you are doing like washing the dishes or fixing a PC. Your friends list are “followers” - people who follow your “Tweets” (Twitter entries) and people you follow. You can also mark favorite entries.
I still don’t get it. Aside from the voyeuristic thrill of seeing what your friends may be doing at any given moment (great for stalkers too) what exactly makes Twitter so useful and appealing? I am curious to hear comments from people (pro and con) about their thoughts on Twitter.