There’s a new way to let the world know more about your world, about who you are and what your life looks like. As if we don’t have enough reality TV, self-absorbed diary distribution, and "it’s-all-about-me" video.
Now there’s something called Twitter. According to Andy Wibbels, the blogging guru,
"Here’s how Twitter works:
- Every few minutes, hours or days you type in what you are doing – only 140 characters.
- Twitter broadcasts that out to your friends.
Twitter mimics other social networking features by allowing you to add other users to your friends list and you can follow what they are doing."
Andy has quite a few postings on this new service as the digital world has discovered it, pulled at it, been annoyed by it, and looked for new ways to use if from what the inventor (Evan Williams, founder of ODEO.com and Blogger) might have intended. To experiment on your own with Twitter, see Andy’s posting on getting it set up. You can also do a search for "Twitter" on his blog for more thoughts about this service.
I am both intrigued by what technology enables us to do and cynical that more ways of communicating really gives us more connection. Especially when it’s 140 characters worth as a time.