To Tweet or Not to Tweet

Twitter is a rapidly growing micro-blogging application which allows users to post one sentence summaries of their activities.

Basically, with one click you can follow and connect with your friends, celebrities and perhaps top names in your professional field.

But then I am a Gigantic DoucheBag

My opinion is that Twitter’s lack of purpose only furthers the impression that it is yet another unnecessary celebrity-driven success in a sea of online time-wasters.

Does anyone see any potential benefits for using Twitter, especially relating to engineers?

I have a twitter account. I mostly follow agencies. For example, Mississippi Department of Transportation has a twitter account for each major artery leaving the state. They plan to use it for hurricane evacuation updates like which interstate exits are closed or out of gas. I also follow the Mississippi Department of Health and two local new agencies.

Also, I follow my husband. I think he forgets I follow him because before mother's day he posted that he was working on a poem for me. So it's a good way to peak into his mind.

I can see it being useful for news or travel info as GCC said. Some websites also have a twitter feed now; if some development was imminent I might follow that.

I don't think I'd be interested in following the activities of any people. Don't tell my hubby.

I'm sure one of these days some one's going to get busted using Twitter.

"Went to the hardware store. Bought rope and... uhhh... duct tape."

^^LOL!!!

I have no idea what Twitter is and I don't care. I'm not into any of those social networking sites, myspace, facebook, etc.

The only one I do is LinkedIn because it's a good way to make professional contacts.

I don't want every Tom, Dick, and Harry knowing what I'm up to. And I have better things to do than post up that I bought a loaf of bread or whatever. If you really want to find me that badly, I'm sure it's not hard.

Yeah, but we all know what you're up to here...and it's probably a good thing that Twitter hasn't been goatse'd.

Hmm, you've given me something new to consider.

Quite frankly, I think it's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of. I loathe Twitter so much in fact, that once I heard what it was about, I have never gone to the website. I purposely go out of my way to avoid people, so why in God's name would I give a rat's ass about what they're doing at any given time of day?

I could see the merit for an agency as was posted above, but in all honesty, if I'm at my computer to see the stupid thing anyways, I'm more apt to pay attention to my e-mail alert icon.

Twitter is there to make people feel more important than they really are.

Capt Worley PE said:

Twitter is there to make people feel more important than they really are.

Click to expand...

I agree there are lots of "friends" I have no interest in following, but there's definitely a market for celebrities... Lance Armstrong has a great feed!

There's no way I'm wasting time on this new fad other than what's embedded in my school or other organization's websites to relay current information.

Does anyone else find it ironic that there is such disdain for "Twitter" from people that spend a great amount of time on a social networking message board discussing what other people are doing or thinking at any given point during the day.

As I stated earlier, I get updates sent to my phone from MSU sports and other news agencies. I don't follow a "person", but I don't knock other people that want to, lest they knock the fact I like to do the weird things I do.

For the record, I have friends that think message boards are just as dumb/geeky as a few of you think twitter/facebook/myspace/etc. are.

Can't we all just get along?

^^So the message board/Twitter debate is kinda like the Mac/PC debate?

I still think a year from now we'll barely remember Twitter.

Capt Worley PE said:

^^So the message board/Twitter debate is kinda like the Mac/PC debate?
I still think a year from now we'll barely remember Twitter.

Click to expand...

Were it simply a social thing among friends, I would agree with you.

But, every SEC coach has one, as do most Div. I-A (or Bowl Subdivision) coaches. Most newspapers and news stations also. They have legitimate users, and it's a legitimate way to quickly disseminate information to the masses.

MSU uses text messages to alert to campus updates, emergencies, etc. Obviously, they had some software that stored student's cell numbers, and would send texts to these students. I'm sure that cost money. Now, they can do it using a free service that most students are familiar with.

I think it will last for a while, until text messages become obsolete.

I don't know. i think people will tire of the sheer volume of the messages.

Of course, I thought GM was a good buy at 20 bucks, too.

I signed up and couldn't figure out how to use it, so I guess its not for me. I don't "get it".

I signed up for a twitter account too - seems mostly like low-value spam for me at this point.

rudy said:

I'm sure one of these days some one's going to get busted using Twitter.
"Went to the hardware store. Bought rope and... uhhh... duct tape."

Click to expand...

Classic!!! :appl: :bowdown: :respect:

VTEnviro said:

If you really want to find me that badly, I'm sure it's not hard.

Click to expand...

.... that's what she said! :laugh:

Capt Worley PE said:

Of course, I thought GM was a good buy at 20 bucks, too.

Click to expand...

Ouch.

frazil said:

I signed up and couldn't figure out how to use it, so I guess its not for me. I don't "get it".

Click to expand...

Same here for the most part ...

JR

Capt Worley PE said:

I don't know. i think people will tire of the sheer volume of the messages.

Click to expand...

This is more about a "river of news" paradigm than an "e-mail" paradigm... no one should expect to read all the content in a prolific Twitter or RSS feed - you just scan it as it comes by and if you miss an item, so be it.

Twitter is about micro-publishing... from a cell phone! Facebook is betting on the concept working (they recently redesigned their home page to make it more twitter-like) so I'm not betting on Twitter disappearing.

Capt Worley PE said:

I don't know. i think people will tire of the sheer volume of the messages.
Of course, I thought GM was a good buy at 20 bucks, too.

Click to expand...

I just signed up last week, BioEngineerPE, and had a big investor from Austria started following me. I was like, what the heck is this guy interested in me, did he see my linkedin profile? He said he signed up for an autoload following website, and he had 1000's of people he was instantly following, and couldn't keep up with the messages. He is trying to fix the problem of the sheer volume of people his is following.

I have gotten a few private messages from some low end movie stars such as katheryn winnick and Katherine Redding.

I still don't get the twitter thing except for announcements from church and a few podcasts.