I've always been pretty certain that I'm no "trend setter" (and a far cry from a trend follower, indeed), but I do like to keep up with modern stuff and pervasive pop culture. But all this *Twitter* business has me pretty baffled. I'm not sure I understand it by a mile --- I'm guessing that people stay plugged in all day (or something?) and then 'follow' other twitterers around, tweeting as they twit? Yikes ! But, recently, I see that it's become a big deal this week to CNN (and Ashton Kutcher, Larry King, etc.) over here in the USA, too. Seeing who could get to one million twitter-somethings first. One guy even started calling his friends and/or those strangers following him about electronically yet another new term: his "tweeple"? Good heavens. It's taken society by storm (or so it seems).

So, I have to ask. Anybody here on the site found this new addiction/fixation? Has it become part of your daily routine? Met any new "tweeple" lately? And, finally, what on Earth is the fascination?

Just curious ...

I have never heard of twitter. Mind you I have a mobile (cell to you) which is switched off, I only have it for emergencies.

I don't "get" Twitter either! I'm a bit set in my ways, don't use facebook etc, but a lot of my "virtual friends" Tweet. I suppose it's a way of keeping in touch with friends, but not for me!

I should have thought forward [oops]. It may not be a "global" thing yet? But, o' course, it has its own Wikipedia page already. Read it here ...

I saw it on Ellen and she had Sean Diddy as a guest and he is onto it. I don't find it exactly rivettingly fascinating, but then, I hate phones.

This seems like yet another intrusive device which will cause traffic accidents and get kids in trouble at school- we won't even talk about what a time waster it is. It's the latest in the ranks of electronics which make the folks you are having lunch with feel like they don't exist. That the plastic screen in your hand is the most important thing in your life.
Do we need another hunk of wire and plastic to remove us from reality?

What I don't understand about it are these two things;

A. Why would you want everyone in the world to know everything you are doing on a daily basis? eg. "I am using the bathroom", etc. Makes no sense.

B. This makes even less sense; who would actually WANT to know what you are doing on a daily basis? Or thinking?

Following a famous celebrity or something on it could be a little interesting, as their lives don't follow the same pattern as us "normal" people. But note my use of the word "little" - there are more interesting things to do in life... like play the hourly.

I still have not found out what the 'wonderful' thing about Facebook is and can't imagine why anyone would want to 'twitter'. Don't we all waste enough time already? Are we raising a 'bored' society that needs to be entertained every minute of every day? I wonder...

Thanks for posting the Wiki link, Gats, I read it through including all the reference headings.

The Toronto Daily Star (reference 36) had a heading sufficiently interesting enough for me to follow the link; "Tweet tweet, there's been an earthquake: How an online social network chirpily called Twitter is becoming anything but trivial." The article mentions, in part, how an American journalist graduate used a one word twitter "Arrested" to instantly start the ball rolling for help; another person caught in the 7.9 earthquake in Chengdu got the news out instantly thereby alerting aid groups as well as media. [Toronto Star article here]

So although Twitter is mostly the mundane (I just fed my dog), it can also be used as an important tool in getting vital news out instantly. Will I be joining up? No thanks, I'm quite happy with my MSN messenger and short list on Skye for contacting those important to me. And although I see Twitter as used mostly for self-important drivel, I do see it has an upside too.

You don't need to "join" to read messages. You can go here: http://twitter.com/ and at the bottom click "search" and type in your topic. Yes, it is nice for breaking news stories around the world... of course, the news isn't technically verified or anything, but it does give you live input from people who are on or near the scene of a situation.

I think Twitter could be similar to what happened here when September 11 2001 broke. This was the only place I could access and we all were inquiring into how things were going on in various places. As we had members all over the world, people posted in the forums.
I've tried Twitter out a few times and it's kind of interesting.
It does resemble birds at a fountain somehow.

sometimes they drink deeply and other times they play around with the water. Does that make sense?

We were posting on a board, but Twitter is just a little screen on which you can post. it's a bit like a collective IM or chat room but related to events.

Verbonica, I was thinking more along the lines of obtaining help rather than breaking stories.. a sort of personal 911. I hope I never wish I could type in "Kidnapped"

Thanks for the above link, I typed in the first word that came into my head which was 'watermelon'. Page one gave me entries from an hour old to 5 minutes old. The most interesting one was "Cyn_shine: is supposed to be coloring the "Connective, Muscle and Neural Tissue" section of my coloring book. I have the att. span of a watermelon seed" .. the most mundane was the news that Walmart has them for sale.

I see that Susan Boyle tops the "Trending Topics", all positive remarks too. I hope she knows that, what a thrill to be tops on Twitter when a few short weeks ago nobody knew her name.

I've heard of it, but don't know much about it, as one of the local channels here has some of the news people on it.

Is it a coincidence that the first part of the word has Twit in it.

I do have a Facebook and use that, and update my friends via my Facebook status, but I don't get the point of also having a Twitter, if I already use Facebook. Unless I have two separate groups of friends and want to tell them different things? Plus Twitter seems to work best if you have an Iphone, or other phone that can receive your Twitter updates immediately, no? That's my understanding of it. And my cell phone is nowhere near capable of that.

lol, argus! The word 'twerps' as a collective noun had crossed my mind.

I have a friend who's completely addicted to it whereas I simply don't understand the attraction.

A couple of months ago she phoned me to tell me that a presenter of a television show that she knows I don't watch couldn't get to work because of the snow and she was following his twittered attempts to get down his driveway so I got a blow by snowblower account of his progress. If I'd wanted to know that I could have turned on the tv to look at his empty space on the sofa! Actually, the sofa might have been more interesting. :P

They are available pretty much everywhere, and I have friends in California who seem addicted to theirs...maybe it's even a regional thing, at least here in the states. The high school kids here seem to be content with cell phone text, their Facebook account and the occasional Blackberry. When one is an actual information addict and involved in media [like my friend] this this would be a tailor made device. But I'm too much of a media civilian at this point in life to be interested.

OK--so sorry so dense, but since my son left home I'm in the dark about new technology.

Main question: How do you access or send a Twitter message? On any computer? on a Blackberry? an iPhone?

Disclaimer: I still don't know the difference between a Blackberry and a Palm Pilot. Or for that matter, how they differ from an iPhone. IPhones are newer--do they incorporate the capabilities of the former?

Further disclaimer: I don't even have a cell phone. I've used several, though! And I've only had a phone in my home for less than 5 years.

The first time I had even heard of twitter was when President Obama gave his first speech before a joint session of Congress. Lo and behold! There they were...these people that we have elected to represent us...twittering away. I mean how rude can one get? Shouldn't they have been listening to the President instead of twittering?

Welcome to 2009 queproblema! Aren't telephones a wonderful tool for keeping in touch with family and friends? So sorry, I couldn't resist teasing you. And I don't know the difference between a Blackberry and a Palm Pilot either, having never used either one.

But I have the same questions as queproblema on Twitter. Isn't a cell phone used for twittering? For the life of me, I can't figure out why someone wants to be tethered to the darn thing 24 hours a day. And if they're constantly twittering or whatever it's called, when do they have time for a vocal conversation? Are we going to become a world where we don't even speak to one another? Has anybody seen the animated movie Walle? Are we going to end up like these people?

ClaraSue, I think what one does on their cell phone is called texting. Twitter is a website in which one can post. If one has internet capabilities on their cell phone, one can Twitter on the phone as well as a computer. It's all very too complicated for me.

I went to Verbonica's link and searched a subject, and came up with all sorts of people talking about it. Totally different threads, oh my. All too much for me. And, I certainly wouldn't want the world to know my every waking thought!

I am guessing here, a Blackberry is a kind of phone, and a Palm Pilot is a small gadget on which one keeps their appointments and phone book. Seems to me that Palm Pilots have pretty been replaced now by advanced phones.

I don't get all the texting and twittering, either. To me it's just much easier to pick up my phone and call.

Blackberries are a dark berry, good with apple in jam!