Just a Spoonful of Twitter!

Ahhh… Twitter. I’m not a huge fan of this service (or micro-blogging in general), but I can’t deny its social and cultural impact. While I do not necessarily like the idea of limiting myself to 144 characters, I can see the value of it in other avenues. I have had a twitter account for quite a while, although I haven’t done a whole lot with it. I know Twitter has made some major website updates, so I decided to visit and see what has changed.

First of all, one of the parts I always found confusing about twitter was following tweets, retweets, and their origins. Even though they might use the @ symbol to designate who the tweet is in reference to, it can be difficult to figure out the initial context. For instance, if one of my friends posted a tweet that said, “@joe123 I agree and I think it’s a terrible idea”.. it can be very challenging to figure out exactly what joe123 said that my friend is responding to.

But now, when I see a mysterious tweet in my feed (i.e. a list of all the people I follow), I can click on it and dissect it a lot more. This is very helpful! For example, if I were to click on the tweet I mentioned above, I could see exactly the post it was referring to. I can actually do this with any tweet – not just @’s – and I can see a variety of information regarding them. I can see who has replied to that tweet (even if they are not on my list), who has retweeted it (i.e. copied), the people/keywords mentioned (if any), the picture linked in the tweet (if applicable), and other tweets that have also mentioned the same person and/or keywords. That’s a lot of information that can originate from just 144 characters or less.

I also noticed that there are several tweets in my timeline from people I am not following. These show up because Twitter looks at the people I follow and who these people follow and retweet. For example, I follow John Hogman (also known as the “I’m a PC Guy” from the Apple Commercials). He recently retweeted a post from Jesse Thorn. Even though I am not following Jesse Thorn, this post appeared on my feed. Using the above strategy, I can explore the tweet a little more and learn more about who Jesse Thorn is and what he posts. By doing this, I was able to learn that he hosts a couple radio shows and frequently tweets about these programs. I might consider following him, but I have a hard time keeping up with the people I do follow, as it is.

Speaking of followers, Twitter has made it very easy for me to figure out who to follow – if I don’t know already. Up at the top is a link that reads “Who to follow.” If I click on this, Twitter will suggest popular people for me to follow based on who my friends follow themselves. I see a lot of celebrities on this list, and I can tell they are legitimate because they have the “Twitter verified” badge. Also, I can click on people I already follow and see who is “similar” to them. I’m not sure the algorithm used here, but it’s interesting.

All in all, I think Twitter has come a long way from when I first used it. But, I’m still have a hard time seeing a point in how to use it in my life. I don’t like the idea of being restricted to 144 characters – as an English major it encourages people to shorten or abuse words. Also, because you can post immediately, you’ll hear a lot of instances of “tweet now, think later” where people gets themselves into trouble after something they said. Remember kids, the internet is forever! I do think it has a place in libraries, although I don't think it is as quite as valuable as some of the other tools I am using. It's a good way to get a short message across that doesn't require much substance, but I do not think it should be a replacement or be the only Web 2.0 tool used in libraries.


I will still continue to follow Twitter and see the new updates, but as for now, I will admire Twitter from afar.