Twit? Tweeted? Twooter?
OK, I think I finally get it. I think — after months of scratching my head, holding it up to the light and pondering the meaning of it’s inner workings — I finally get Twitter.
I heard people talk of this grand social tool so unlike the others yet at the same time so much like them that looked at it. And stared. Tried a few words for a moment, ultimately rejecting them as incomplete, and never able to understand.
“So, it’s kinda like a discussion, but one way? And all my grand thoughts have got to fit into those tiny 140 characters? But, but…how’s this a discussion?”
And so for months I was Twitterless; I was one of the unTweeted; destined to remain deTwitterfied. Eventually I learned to be happy; I had a place, and that place just did not Tweet.
But like any card-carrying member of the iFuture I read blogs and eNotes on that iNet thinger. One day I read a blog about a company. And that company was able to connect with it’s customers with Twitter. Intrigued, I read past the first few nanobytes fo the blog entry. As I read, the gamma on my screen became brighter and brighter until I Knew. I Understood. I Saw The Meaning.
Twitter allows you — well rather me since I really was never that concerned with whether or not you were on Twitter — to participate in just those bits of the conversation…sorry, the Conversation (captial “C”)…that I choose to be of a part. I like computery things, so I follow Dell and from time to time Dell will tell me of a deal they have with a link to discover more. Cool. I also can have Barack Obama tell me just what he’s doing, and I can follow his links. I can wait patiently for Joss Whedon to place some nugget of Jossness into the timeline. There’s this whole Conversation going on around me, and I get to choose what bit of it I’m in. And sometimes I can add to it…but only for those who wish to hear it.
So I guess now I am a Twitterzen. In fact, I think I’ll Tweet about this.
