The Verdict On Twitter

Do you twitter? That's how the article began in the Wall Street Journal or some other high culture rag where I first heard of the site. Twitter is the name of the site, it was explained, because it is something akin to a bird twittering, short chirps in brief bursts.

The website, http://www.twitter.com/, is essentially a web based social network of sorts that is different from MySpace or FaceBook, but offering an easier version of a similar thing. When you log in to the site, it asks, "What are you doing?" You have a one hundred forty character limit. You don't have a lot of space, so you need to be efficient. It's a twitter, not a sonata.

Like Plaxo, and some other social networking sites that have shroomed, you also have a chance to "follow" people in your network, and they can choose to follow you.

I became interested in part because I am inquisitive, and in part because I am in marketing/advertising. I like staying in touch with what is happening, what's new, to evaluate what it is and determine its value as both a business opportunity as well as a social phenomenon. I have posted a couple vids on YouTube and built a MySpace space, which I don't think I could find again. Made a podcast of myself singing four part harmony. And maintaining a blog sprang from the same impetus, to learn through doing.

After several months of twittering, I have made the following observation. I find it interesting that I would bother to write on the Internet what I am doing at any time. I mean, in thirty years of journal writing I have almost never written what is going on in my life, what I am doing. Rather, I usually write about what I am thinking or feeling, what I am experiencing on the inside or my inward wrestling with ideas, concepts, situations. So this twittering business just feels strange to me.

Add to this that other people can follow you... I am impressed that some people can be so transparent. They lay their lives bare, it seems. As for me, it seems doubtful that people are going to also share their warts, their inadequacies, self-doubts and fears in the same manner with a host of unknown followers.

I wonder, too, what people like Mother Teresa would think about twittering. Would she take time to invite others to follow her? Would she take time to tell all the details of her day while on the fly pouring herself out to the handicapped, hungry and needy?

Then my mind flits to Jesus. WWJT? What Would Jesus Twitter? "Just finished healing a blind man. Put mud on his eyes. He washed and could see."

Would Socrates tell what he was doing all day? Or, would he just ask questions? "Are you doing the right thing or just doing what you think the gods will approve?" or "Where do we come from? And where are we going? How can you know for sure?" Or "Why are you here? Why is there air? And who is Bill Cosby?"

At the end of the day, the verdict is still out for me. It's interesting to observe emerging trends in social networking, and probably difficult to predict where they will lead. For now, I'll play along and see what happens. That's why I Twitter anyways. How about you?