Seed Newsvine
I’ve recently read an article in Wired that inspired me to investigate the social networking application called Twitter.
Clive Thomspson’s article describes “how twitter creates a social sixth sense” (Thompson 2007).
Social networking applications such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and blogging for that matter, have had their fair share of criticism. I’ve tried all but one of these to date, MySpace being the exception.
One of the similarities between the features of Facebook and Twitter is the ability for users to update their status, which means they can send and receive brief comments to a public or restricted space about what they are thinking or doing at any given moment. This can be done from their computers or their mobile phones. It’s a practice that’s been referred to as micro-blogging.
While Thompson describes the dismissal of micro-blogging applications by leading professionals, he remains unconvinced that the technology is pointless. He explains how the micro-updates from his friends give his relationships more depth.
Thompson’s article prompted my entry into the Twittersphere. I can certainly see the benefits for people with active social networks and for organised gatherings such as conferences and so on, however I’m still in the early stages of discovery.
One thing that I didn’t like about Twitter was the use of the word follow/ing. I think connect would be a more accurate description because the object of following is pursuit, which is uni-directional, whereas connect denotes bi-directionality.
Update: There’s another article on Twitter here. It describes the recent Twitter activity when news broke about the passing of actor Heath Ledger.
Update: 16/02/08: There’s another interesting article here. Thanks to Snurb for directing me to this website.
