What's the Point of twitter?
I just signed up for twitter account and am now wondering "what's the point of twitter?"
Twitter, for those of you who don't know, is a way that you can let the world know what you are doing at the moment. At least that's what most people use if for. You can update it at their website, with a text message, or an instant message. You can, also, put your up to date twitter message on your website with a badge.
But, what problem does it solve? What need does it fill? What desire does it feed?
The only thing I could think of was the desire to have other people know what you are doing. To know that other people care about what you are doing. Does this try to fill the need of people to know that others care about them?
Twitter with it's lack of a clear void to fill has taken off. CNN uses it, the top bloggers use it, and millions of other people use it.
What do you think the point of twitter is? What void does it try to fill? What do you think is the point?
If you're looking, you can find me on twitter at http://twitter.com/mattfarina.
Comments
#1 I don't get it either...but...
I don't get it either, but now I want my own....hah...
#2 I think twitter really only
I think twitter really only fills an actual need for people who live far more active and interesting lives than I do.
But it is kind of useful for keeping in semi-touch with a buddy who is a certified globe trotter. He twitters a pithy comment about what is currently happening in his life (from wherever he me be via SMS) and I respond with a very likely much less interesting reply almost instantaneoulsy also via SMS.
It's the kind of thing you don't get till you play with it a bit- and its value is drastically modulated by the network affect- the more people you know who twitter the more uses you can see for it.
There are many interesting things going on with the twitter API.
#3 Or....
Or, twitter could be used for a group of friends who are all over the place during the week. I'm sure this would have gotten a lot of use if it were around during my fraternity days and dorm days.
#4 Exactly
I, too, have a twitter account I'm struggling to see the worth of. So in an attempt to find a clue I typed "what's the point of twitter" into google and found your page! So let's wonder together. I'm wondering if another recent fad facebook will keep my interest too, but that's another story perhaps.
#5 Why not just send an SMS
Why not just send an SMS from your cell? And, who gives a crap about what you are doing.... "I am standing in line." 5 minutes later "Still standing in line but a bit closer." 5 minutes later "I made it into the building" ---seriously, WHO CARES?
#6 Lmfaoo you're right. What you
Lmfaoo you're right. What you just said right now was kind of funny. :)
"I'm standing in line" 5 mins later "Getting closer" 10 mins later "in the building" lmao
#7 emerging uses
I'm writing a report on Twitter and have done quite a bit of research on this question. Here's what I've found as some of the uses of Twitter - I think it's very exciting:
TYPICAL USES
• Chat with friends about what you’re doing at the moment, “Typing my report on twitter – lots of fun!”
• Tell friends about an interesting new article you found, “Look! Twitter is in the news! http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2008/06/twitter-reports.html”
• Reporting Technical information, “Here’s a Twitter API for Linux http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/twittering-command-line”
EMERGING USES
Twitter is a very new technology which is still emerging in ways the creators probably never imagined.
• Political candidates are using twitter to communicate with constituents. (Obama is on my list of friends)
• Conference organizers use twitter to advertise conferences and provide a backchannel of communication for attendees.
• Library information and research
• Crisis reporting – LA Times used twitter to report and communicate when there were brush fires
• “man on the street” reporting – a man in California tweets that he feels a tremor, his friend responds by saying he thinks it was a 3.5, and the official report from USGS that the earthquake was a 3.7 comes out on Twitter later that day. (Dorsey video)
• News agency tweets: CNN, ESPN, LATimesfires
• Advertising: companies using Twitter to alert customers of special sales and to get customer feedback.
Full report will eventually be post to my blog:
silvertomorrow.wordpress.com
#8 I am in the same boat.
I too have a twitter account, and for awhile tried to get my family who lives all over the country to use it as a way to let eachother know what's going on in our lives. However, that idea failed horribly. I was the only one using it! AHH! I see so many people who have like 1000 followers, but to what point. You can't honestly expect me to believe that 1000 people care that "you're standing in line" or "eating a burger"...
On a other view, I can see it that if you're heading up a conference and want to let everybody on your team know when where and what's going on all at once. That would be useful instead of sending lengthy voicemail or having to type it all out on your cell.
Seeing as how I dont have a following of people who would care enough about my doings, I am struggling to see the importance or the void that it would fill.
If anybody has figured it out, visit my site and contact me! :)
#9 Thing is if you already have
Thing is if you already have a Facebook account - and lets face it, who doesn't these days? - you can put status updates on there so people know what's going on, you can also do a lot more besides, okay the applications are annoying but the photos are great and the walls are a quick way to see what's gone on with certain friends lately... I'm amazed so many people are on Twitter, why bother??
#10 Okay. So. We all complain
Okay. So. We all complain about our busy, hectic lives..... So what's the point in adding a third step to a VERY simple process???? Send a freaking text message. You can send texts to multiple people. Why go to your computer.. type in your message... then send it out? Just pick up your cell and do it there? Someone was VERY bored when they created this site. Any it shows. THE SITE IS BORING. I went to the site with anticipation since everyone talks about it. I was greatly disappointed!
#11 I signed up for a titter
I signed up for a titter account during the election because I wanted to contribute to the CNN election. But when i signed up I had no idea what i was doing, or how to use it. Now that the election is over, I've realized that I was indeed using it correctly, but it serves absolutely no purpose. I 100% agree with everything that you wrote, but I just can't get on bored with twitter. It's pointless and boring and i really don't understand why it's so popular.
#12 Nope, just don't get it
Nope, just don't get it either. I am an IT consultant and very tech literate but I already have too may portals to update / check etc. It's yet another thing, BUT as I don't HAVE to do it I won't. I got myself a titter account (nice typo Maria - suspect it's deliberate - im dropping the "w" from now on) and was spooked that several sad gits started "following" me. I only posted about 4 messages all of them mundane - who on earth follows mundanity (? i f that's a word)
#13 I keep thinking there has to
I keep thinking there has to more to it as well... but I guess that's it!! None of my friends are on there either so I'm just talking to nobody really unless randoms 'follow' me for some reason!? Think my friends have the right idea..
#14 I so completely agree with
I so completely agree with you.
I likewise did a Google search in the interest of finding out why it is so popular. I just can't get onboard with it. It seems like nothing more than glorified text messaging, and I refuse to understand why people feel the need to be so connected to one another all the time, alerting them to the most inane and boring situations. I don't even have a cell phone. So it was bad enough when the whole text-messaging craze caught on. Now this? Sorry...not happening for me. Never will.
#15 Agree 10000%
Pointless, pointless. Facebook at least is handy to see latest pics of your friends. Twitter seems to be just like the status on facebook .. but that's all it is. Really pointless - can't see the point at all. Signed up to check it out but overwhelming underwhelmed.
#16 I totally agree. If i spent
I totally agree. If i spent as much time communicating with my mates over the last 3 months as i had on twitter, i would have had a great time.
#17 Twitter recipe.
Twitter recipe.
1. Take 1 Facebook.
2. Remove everything but status updates.
3. Serve to a bunch of losers who think their friends give a damn that they're "Going to the cottage this weekend. W00t!"
I think Twitter is an elaborate joke that I'm just not in on yet.
#18 EXACTLY, just my point!!!
EXACTLY, just my point!!!
#19 "I think Twitter is an
"I think Twitter is an elaborate joke that I'm just not in on yet."
Bump.
#20 Finally I have found company
I concur with every comment on here....I really just don't see the point.
It is to 2008-09 what Myspace was to 2006-07.
#21 What's the Point of Twitter?
I don't know the answer to this either! From what I can make out it's like a watered down Facebook, basically Facebook statuses but not a single one of the other things that facebook offers! Does anyone want to know what I'm doing all the time? Do I want to know what they're doing all the time? It's very strange, and I don't get it yet...
#22 wow, I think I get it now...
Like everyone here I signed up due to all the hype and I thought, what is the point" so I did a google search and what do I find? hundreds of other people asking the same question.
I don't have a facebook yet, I got sucked into the awful and extremely buggy myspace and have fears of using a copy cat run my MS. Still I gave it a shot and realized that if I could set it up to send SMS messages that is the only value it has for me, not charging money for those stupid text messages all my friends are obsessed with. I suppose if you have lots of money and can afford a phone with text included there is little point, but if you are poor and can't pay for text messages, then well it has at least one purpose. But since you could go to the website of the carrier of the person you are texting on the web and sms that way for free I still don't see the point unless you can get everyone on board which is doubtful.
I too am in the process of writing up a blog on my own site discussing the limited value of such a service, if anyone is interested the website is www.bim-dizzle.com
#23 Wow, I thought it was only
Wow, I thought it was only me. I don't really see the point of these social networking sites if I'm perfectly honest. If you're going to communicate with people why would you want to announce the same thing to everyone. How many people can be bothered to manage the visibility of all of your communications with all your friends when you can just use chat, email or SMS? Sure it's nice to have a profile on facebook so you can upload pics etc but all this other crap, I dont think so!?
I'm sure people will feel the same in time!
#24 New Faith in Twitter
I read this week that 60% of people leave within a month. That's pretty bad stickability ratio.
I generally feel it is a lot of people shouting in one room - as someone has commented. But have realised tonight that there are some people out there (outside the salesmen, the marketeers, the strippers, the "i made a million on twitter you can too" groups) that do like it and do want to take part.
I am still into it, but am clining onto it by the edge of my fingernails.
#25 I agree, what is the point of twitter?
You asked this question before I set up my facebook group!
But I agree, what is the point of twitter?!!!
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=54806185274&ref=ts
Join my facebook group!
#26 Twitter : the point
Try using a piece of client software like Tweetdeck or Thwirl. You might just get it then. Just using the Twitter website will leave you scratching your head...
#27 for celebs?
honestly i think twitter is for following celebrities and what they're doing opposed to your friends. crazed fans of rock stars and actors can easily "follow" their fav celebs and see what they're doing (only god knows who gives that much of a shit)maybe they wanna track down a concert or take some friggin paparazzi photos, i don't know!
the point is, is that unless you're very popular and have a decently exciting lifestyle then you shouldn't get twitter, cuz no one cares.
#28 Twitterati
We all have opinions and Twitter is the place to make them known in the hope that someone will be interested to read what you think or have to say. Unfortunately very few people have something interesting to say and if they do they would want to say it somewhere other than Twitter. Free vanity press I call it.
#29 For those with overinflated egos.
I had been kicking around the idea of joining Twitter since I'd heard it was the new "big thing" from my brother, then I took a stroll down to see what the fuss was about. "I'm at the supermarket!" "OMG I stubbed my toe!"...PUH-LEASE.
Coming away from my visit to Twitterville, I gathered that there are quite a few people out there who have to be here and there constantly, yet have a massive void inside. They need reassurance that someone gives a damn about their life - no matter how meaningless the events, and on a CONSTANT basis. I guess what I'm trying to say that these peoples' view of self-importance transcends the reality that they're just like everyone else...wating in line...stubbing their toe...
I'm going to close with a line from Brad Pitt in Fight Club:
"You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake."
#30 wow
well myspace.. facebook, piczo, bebo.. they were all understandable as u can add friends.. etc,. i dont know how to talk to ur friends on here at all.. im so confused lol
#31 The point is..
The Creators had an idea and FB already existed...so...they said..
Let us make FB but .."different"..
And so there was Twitter...
And Twitter was dumb
#32 i just created a twitter
i just created a twitter account 5 mins ago...assumed it was more like facebook or myspace....realized its pointless and ubsurd...assumed I was missing something so googled "whats the point of twitter"....clicked link to this page and see Im not alone in my conclusions. I will be deleting my account as soon as I post this....
Twitter....what a joke
#33 I don't get it
Just read a Time magazine article from this summer about how twitter would change the world. I suppose if we create one more thing so we go around "heads down" in life - that is change. I did a quick search on twitter on stuff that interests me. I can find more relevant things in a dedicated forum. I don't really understand the buzz. Facebook (I don't have an account) I get, because we are fairly nomadic. I am becoming more and more retrogrouchish everyday. I ended up here asking "what's the point?" on Google. I am getting closer to the truth. People are internet voyeurs or attention hogs, or both. I'm just lost I guess.
#34 its a pointless exercise...
its a pointless exercise...
and thats why it succeeds, because its about 'dead bang on' the level of most peoples intellect nowadays.
And given the number of Attention Deficit Disorder cases out there, its about the right text length, before they get bored and move on...
God help us all. (that actually would fit, pity no-one says it)
#35 Twitter
I too have arrived on your page by googling What's the point of Twitter, but I'm not really any the wiser!