Thing 27: Twitter

Twitter is described as a "social networking and micro-blogging service". Micro-blogging is right--I set up my Twitter account today, and discovered that "tweets" are limited to 140 characters! In fact, you can watch the number 140 in the upper right hand corner of your "tweet" quickly decrease as you chirp along. Otherwise, Twitter is similar to Facebook.

One of my friends has a Twitter connection to his cell phone, so that he can tweet frequently about what is happening in his life without having to use his computer and without having to actually talk to people. This particular friend is living in Israel right now, doing military service, and of course we are all concerned about him and want to make sure that he is alive. To read his tweets is a comfort. I receive his tweets as an RSS feed on my personal LiveJournal account.

Another one of my friends uses Twitter to take notes for longer pieces of writing (more detailed blog posts or presentations). He used Twitter to follow the presidential campaign and elections, and he also uses it to tweet about court cases in the news.

I can see myself using Twitter more for quick journalistic purposes, and less for social purposes...I have Facebook for that...in any case, I will be tweeting on Twitter tonight while I watch the Oscars. (My Twitter name, BTW, is voxpopulare in case you would like to follow my tweets.)