All Atwitter about Twitter

My days being on the forefront of cyber technology stopped in 1991 when I graduated from Carnegie Mellon University. At CMU, I was exposed to a thing that had been around since the 1970's, but when I attended CMU, usage was still primarily confined to governmental and academic environs and to text-only newsgroups (we called them "b-boards" at CMU). It was kind of cool to be able to communicate with people all over the world in this smallish community. Of course, since then the internet exploded into what has become a normal part of everyday existence for most everyone.

In the years since graduation, I have relied on twentysomethings--or friends who date twentysomethings--to keep me up on the latest technology. Sure, I knew that my cell phone could send and receive text messages, but it wasn't until I had two exchange students living with me last year that I became more versed, so to speak, in its usage. And I've since found it's a very useful tool--sort of an on-the-road email alternative.

I've only recently gotten a Facebook account (thank you, Katie), and to my surprise I've already racked up over 50 friends. Facebook, in case you aren't familiar with it, allows users to have a kind of mini-web site where they can post pictures, add a profile, and connect and talk to other users. While I don't think I'll ever be as enamoured as some of my friends about it, it's a nice way to reconnect with old friends and keep people in the loop as to what you are doing. My ambivalence about Facebook is probably a good thing, because I could easily see how this could become an addiction.

The newest cyber technology is Twitter. Twitter is something I had seen on my friend Andy's excellent Dark Ufo web site, a central depository for all things Lost, but never looked into it or thought too much about it. Then about a month ago, I was sitting in a marketing meeting, and the twenty-something marketing director started enthusing about Twitter. She must have said "it's so cool" about five times, so I thought if something got her that excited, there must be something to it. As if by serendipity, ever since then, it's been popping up in conversation and in the news.

Twitter is, in a nutshell, a way of transmitting, by text message, very short (140 characters max) messages to people who also have Twitter accounts. A recent newspaper article described these messages as "is the haiku of social networking". Apparently everyone who's everyone Twitters--from President Obama (although he hasn't "tweeted"--Twitter talk for posted a text--since the election) to celebrities to journalists.

I can see the attraction this type of communique would have to a journalist, as it's a concise way to receive news--from eyewitnesses who are tweeting in real time. Remember when the USAirways plane crash landed in the Hudson? A witness to the crash was one of the first people to break the news--via Twitter.

Twitter, like text messages, emails, Facebook, MySpace, and all the other cyber ways to communicate, definitely has its place. But will we all be tweeting soon with mundane messages to each other--just to say we're part of the Twitter Nation?

I think I will leave tweeting to birds for now.