Twitter addendum

I actually get some time at my other job to read magazines that are, uh, not really held in high esteem. I came across an "article" about Twitter and how celebrities use it to comment on all sorts of things and people can follow these tweets without having to be a "friend" like you would have to be on Facebook. It occurs to me that Twitter, and possibly the reason I don't really like Twitter, is perfect for marketing a personality. Even if that personality is not a person. One day, and I don't think it will be that far in the future, there will be enough people on Twitter to make it a worthwhile marketing platform. And then, not too long after that, everyone will stop following anyone or thing on Twitter because it will be like carrying around a bunch of annoying advertisements trying to sell you on something.

Thing 27. Twitter

My Twitter username is bananahaynes. I would have posted a widget, but then I'd have to change my settings to "public" and frankly, I don't want to. I have enough relationships online and off, thank you very much. I finally signed on for Facebook and I have a very love/hate relationship with that. Twitter, to me, is like Facebook with only the status updates. I've stopped actively pursuing anymore "friends" because I can't handle the time or mind clutter. And for me to be a part of a constantly updating social network will drive me effing nuts!

I actually signed up for Twitter quite a while ago because I wanted to see if I could understand it. I do, now, but for it to actually work for the things I'm interested in, such as friends' lives, they too would have to sign up. And I think I know three people who actually use it, and one who has ever updated. I then signed up for a feed suggested by More Things On a Stick and one of a local fellow who has a great personality and seems to really, really like twittering. Problem is, I just don't care. I have more than enough useful and non-useful information running through this brain of mine to be bogged down with minutiae. I fully agree with David Lee King who says basically that if you are into it, use it, but otherwise it's fine to just know about it. Like many of these Things, I am very thankful to be aware of the technologies. Twitter is the sort of thing that libraries could use, but not unless there is someone on staff who would be able to do it all the time and not until a good portion of their patrons are following the feed. This may be something that will take off in the future, but for now I think it's a bit over-hyped.