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To twitter or not to twitter?

OK. So I was quick to dismiss Twitter as another fad, another waste of my precious time.

But tonight, I had an epiphany. I’ve decided it’s worth at least trying before I dismiss it. That’s my philosophy on life. Why shouldn’t it apply not just to foods or hobbies, but to social networking as well? Though, I’ll have to recruit other friends to do the same or its pretty much pointless, and none of my friends is on it now. (This is an open invite to all your readers out there to add me as your friend.)

What brought about this realization? Facebook.

See, a friend commented on my wall about my status. For those not in the know (i.e. the few not on facebook — which you should be, I’ve been over this), on your Facebook wall there is a spot for your status. It says… “Meranda is…” and then whatever it is I’m doing, thinking, whatever.

Usually mine is filled with random updates: “Meranda is wondering when someone’s gonna come visit her in Lafayette.” “Meranda is __not__ on spring break.” “Meranda is enjoying a beautiful day off.”

Sometimes I get slightly more detailed, “Meranda is seriously not happy about working an 8 a.m. Sunday shift. And incredibly creeped out by the idea of being alone at the J&C and in charge of updating jconline.” or “Meranda is feeling like crap and not feeling like going to work tonight. :(.” There is a character limit, though I don’t know exactly what it is.

Often it’s pretty vague. Sometimes, it’s pretty funny: “Meranda is learning whether finding the bones of Jesus Christ would be a good thing… Gotta love the Discovery Channel.” or “Meranda is surfing facebook and myspace… for work purposes. seriously.” or my personal favorite Meranda is laughing at the use of the phrase “tricked out” on the scanner.”

All of these are actual status updates culled from my own Facebook account in the past month. Yeah, I usually update once or twice a week. (For those who care and aren’t privvy to my facebook account, my current status is: “Meranda is got a hair cut. uh oh.” So much for the grammar, but you can’t change the first two words.)

As you can see, I update it pretty regularly. And people respond to it. Personally, I read my other friends status updates like it’s my job, especially now that I don’t see half of them 10 hours a day like I used to. Then, there are the compulsive AIM away message checkers. The people who keep a running commentary on their life through AIM away messages. Come now, you know you’re one of them. I used to be. But it’s been so long since I logged on to iChat anyway. I should dust off my screen name. Anyway, it dawned on me tonight, Oh… that’s what Twitter is good for. So, I’m going to give it a try. I’ll keep you all posted.

If you haven’t the slightest idea what Twitter is, other than go to the Web site, I’m going to recommend this video (as stolen from Mindy McAdams who found it somewhere else… you get the idea.)

I’m still not seeing the “point” except that it’s a fun little tool I can see myself becoming addicted to if I can get enough people to join. Other than that, this post did lay some pretty good ideas of the potential. My favorite was “friendsourcing” — think phone a friend on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, only you phone your whole friends list instead of having to pick.

My URL for anyone interested is http://twitter.com/meranduh. Find out what I’m up to now. Chances are it’s work or sleep or perhaps trying to fall alseep but worrying about work or trying to work but thinking about sleep. Those are the two dominant forces in my life right now. And I’m about to succumb to one of them extremely early tonight.

One Response to “To twitter or not to twitter?”

  1. Sara Says:

    I had NO idea what twitter was until you sent me the invite. Is it something that just exploded within the last few days or am I really out of the loop? It seems pretty entertaining so far. :D