What is Twitter and what's the point of it?

I'm totally behind on technology these days...I don't own a MP3 player, use the phone instead of text messaging, don't have neither a facebook nor a myspace page, & I mainly just use the internet for email & ebay.  (And for this site as well, of course!).  Recently I keep hearing about a new thing called Twitter & it sounds like a complete waste of time to me, but what do I know.  Can someone explain the point of it to me please?  From what I understand you can post your thoughts for the whole internet community to see and basically that's all it does.  I'm just curious because it seems to be everywhere now.

Twitter is like a blog but you only post one or two lines at a time telling what's on your mind, what you are doing, updates, ect. for you friends to see. You find your friends (you can also find celebs, political figures, news stations, ect.) on twitter and see their updates. It's fun.

Sounds pointless. I have enough crap cluttering up my online life already.

I think it's pretty pointless too... but the people who like it LOVE it. If you're one of those people who sends ten thousand two-line text messages a week your communication comes in sound-bytes already, and you're used to it.

I have seen ONE relevant application for twitter... the Africam website has a bunch of webcam pointed at various watering holes in Africa, and it's hit and miss when you'll actually see the animals. They just added twitter, so when somebody sees a Zebra or an elephant etc they can pop out a tweet and let everyone else know about it right then. I still haven't bothered with it, but I can see it being useful for that.

Original Post by kajikit:

I have seen ONE relevant application for twitter...

I've got one more relevant application for ya, there's some bar in California that sends out a twitter message every time they change one of their taps, so people always know what's on tap. 

Twitter is an tool that you can use to get timely information.  I use it as a news source, what I like about it is that I'm getting the information directly from the source rather than filtered through the media.

It's merely a question about what you prefere and it can't be stamped as a "time wasting thing"! It's each their own how they like to "waste their time". It would be the same as for you to tell that there is something you love and in return you are being called a moron for doing so.

I also have a Twitter account but I rarely tweet (send messages) unless there really is something I want my friends there to read or if I want to share my thoughts about something, that someone else has posted.

I follow some celebs (who I have actually met and talked to) and politicians as well and it's nice to know what they are up to with with projects, events etc. I do not live in USA and therefore I do not have the luxury of meeting celebs as often (though some might even think that that also is a waste of time. But we all have different hobbies, right!) and when not in the USA it is hard to find out where the events are going to be in time. So, I read the posts on Twitter and know ahead of time from the head source before I "waste my time" hours to surfe the internet for some answers. People use Twitter not only from a computer or laptop, but they also send Tweets from their cellphones like iPhone etc.

Everybody uses the internet for diffrent things. If I should be judged for "wasting my time" on Twitter (I also have MySpace), then I should also have the right to wonder why people even have internet, if they don't use it for more than email, ebay and putting in weight information here. That for me would be a "waste of money" on internet costs, which I consider far more questionable than "wasting time". But as adults we don't have to answer to anyone on how we spend time and money. Especially not to strangers. So, generally THIS reply was a "waste of time", yet I did it merely to make a point.

There is a reason why Twitter has many millions of people using it. If it was an entirely pointless thing, I'd doubt that many people would sign up for an account there.

update: i am now drinking coffee and it is good.

^^^^twitter

update: i am scratching my boob.

update: its raining!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !

i dont tweet and i dont have FB or MS. i spend waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to much time on CC as is.

...and the difference in that would be? Only that those last posts were inapropriate HERE. You might want to reconsider Twitter for you.

And that is exactly where I am heading now. Much more entertaining!

There is no point to twitter. There honestly isn't.

It simply is.

Original Post by danish_mama:

...and the difference in that would be? Only that those last posts were inapropriate HERE. You might want to reconsider Twitter for you.

And that is exactly where I am heading now. Much more entertaining!

the difference being that i was joking? pointing out what a waste of bandwidth it is? unless i am in a country experiencing a civil uprising with a media gag, i see no point.

which was my point. duh.

What are we twittering

That being said, I think some of you need to start thinking outside the box on this one. 

danish_mama

[I do not live in USA and therefore I do not have the luxury of meeting celebs as often]

I live in the US and have met very few celebs.  Once met the father of Tiger Wood's caddy.  I find it amusing that those of you who don't live here think we in the US know, or really care about, where any celebrities will be at any given time.

I have better things to do.  And tweeting is not one of them.

Have a good one!

I'm not surprised that there are people that don't get Twitter.  I mean there are people that don't get the Internet, cell phones, or even automobiles.

santonacci - Love The Onion!  And that video was priceless!  Good job!

au to mo bile?

watergirl - those who tweet and facebook and text too much are no longer able to spell correctly.  Sad...

Original Post by watergirl:

au to mo bile?

Bingo.