What is the purpose of Twitter?

[Ginevra]

IOW, what was it intended to "do" when it was constructed? 

 

I don't do Twitter. I had an account once, but I never did anything with it and eventually just deleted it. Today, a friend sent me an invitation to follow their business on Twitter. I can't follow, but it's made me wonder what the purpose of Twitter is even supposed to be. 

[mytwomonkeys]

I don't know either. Tweeting? I just don't get it.

[redsquirrel]

It is a social networking site. You follow some people who are friends, and others who are not (like possibly your mayor and local radio station and CNN and your congress rep and Tom Hiddleston and Alton Brown etc etc) and then you can read and find it moderately entertaining. Some people are great on twitter and others don't add much.

 

It's not a big deal, but I find it fun. There have been a few twitter pop culture events that were amazing, such as when the really bad movie "Sharknado' was on TV. I don't even own a TV but reading what all the people I follow were posting and reposting etc etc was one of the funniest things I have ever experienced.

 

It is also a place that is now breaking news quickly. I follow some journalist and news sources and I find that I check twitter first if I want to know what is going on. For example, I found out Michael Jackson died via twitter. I was reading stuff out of Egypt via twitter, the presidential debates were fun to 'see' over twitter. Tonight I am looking forward to the State of the Union speech via twitter. I will be watching it on my laptop with my phone in my hand, lol.

 

I do have a couple actual real live friends on twitter and we sometimes joke back and forth a teensy bit every now and then, much like instagram etc.

 

It is a great way to get info out very quickly. For example my local police and fire dept and school system are all on twitter. That is how I find out school is closed due to weather (does effect my life in a small way) or if a particular part of town should be avoided due to a traffic accident etc.

 

FWIW, I don't see the point of facebook, lol. I've never had a facebook account.

 

[Liz CA]

Evidently, it is a place where people share mostly inane information in snippet form. I have to admit, I cannot quite see a purpose for FB either, except it's fun seeing photos of people you knew 50 years ago...

The whole social media thing would lend itself to an interesting sociological study.

 

ETA: Just read Redsquirrel's post in its entirety and it seems we are kindred spirits.  :)

[Guest]

Interesting, Red Squirrel. It always sounds (from news reports, etc.) like celebrities are constantly putting their feet in their mouths via Twitter! I've never understood what I would be waiting to hear someone say on there. Even from a business perspective - what do you put on there? "Putting up a new home in Churchill Springs - come see our models!" or what?  :tongue_smilie:

 

I do use FB. What I most like about that is seeing photos of events from people I'm not always (or maybe ever) in touch with in person. And sometimes, the funny memes. And finding out that the high school homecoming King is now bald and fat.  :smilielol5:

[73349]

I don't tweet much, but I use it to keep up with issues that are of interest to me/us that are too obscure to make the news (rocket launches to show DS, project-based learning ideas, local stuff, etc.). I also chose to use a Twitter account to log in to Pinterest, rather than a FB account (which contains more personal information and which I might get rid of at some point).

 

I consider it a way to have, or to listen to, public conversations in real time. I don't follow celebrities and usually don't bother looking at the trending topics.

 

Also, @HonestToddler is hysterical.

[redsquirrel]

I don't follow any celebrity that I have seen put their foot in their mouth. But, my idea of a celebrity is Alton Brown, Neil Gaiman, Rick Riordan, Joyce Carol Oats, Margret Awood, Judy Blume,. Maybe Lena Duham, but I've never seen her say anything particularly foot in mouth worth.

 

That said, I don't sit an obsessively read my twitter feed. I dip into it and out. I check it a few times a day and post my own tweets maybe once or twice a week. I do check it first in the morning before I read the news because if something is happening it will be all over twitter first.

 

And business stuff is prob best if you live in a town with a busy twitter network. If no one locally is following you then you are tweeting into the void.  I don't like advertising cluttering up my feed. I follow a couple local businesses and they don't tweet often. One is a restaurant and once a week it posts what the brunch menu is and maybe the occasional special, but that is it. If they were posting every day and selling it hard I would unfollow. I try to be careful with what I tweet. No one likes being twitter bombed. So, I will occasionally tweet about a performance by my son's ballet school, but I keep it to once or twice that that is it.

 

I have a friend who is a big city PR person and she knows a whole lot more about using social media for stuff like that.

[LucyStoner]

Twitter is not for the inane over-sharing. I once thought it was and dismissed it as such.

 

It is great for following new events and updates, especially breaking news. It also is great for professional networking and getting ideas from colleagues. I used it regularly when I worked and it was useful. As an example, I was looking for a venue that met an odd set of requirements that I knew others in my field might know about and be up on. A quick tweet and boom, input from a dozen others on ideas and the venue was booked later that week.

 

Now that I am not tweeting for an organization (again marketing and money related), I don't use it as much. Several times a week, not several times a day. I do follow some journalists I know and find it has replaced the function of Google reader for me to an extent- links to news stories that I am liable to care about. Still I now know why it is useful and don't write it off as just a waste of time anymore. If you are not using it, there is no reason to have it just to follow one business.

[kewb]

Personally, I don't get twitter.  I don't tweet.  I have seen some news reports on peoples tweets that have been quite funny.

[Slache]

This is the best question ever asked on this forum.

[AmandaVT]

I used to think twitter was dumb. But then I got an account and I really like it now. Here's why: 

 

I'm a big football fan and follow a bunch of sportswriters. During the football season, I can see articles when they post them on all different sites without having to individually check each site. There are some former officials on there who will tweet about controversial calls during games which is really helpful. Inside scoop on new contracts and trades. (I'm a football geek)

 

I'm also a weather geek and I follow a variety of meteorologists and weather stations. It's nice to get real time updates on weather, especially if the local weather is bad. I also follow our state police twitter account, and the department of transportation. Road updates in the winter are great and I've been saved from a bad drive a few times this winter already. 

 

I follow local and national news organizations and I like seeing headlines pop up, usually with links to stories. 

 

As my name on here suggests, I've been a gymnastics coach (although not at the moment) and I am a gymnastics fan. There is a wealth of gymnastics info on twitter too. 

 

I'm not really into celebrities, but I do follow Alton Brown! 

 

Yes, I can go to all these websites and look up info, but it's nice seeing things in real time. Because we've been in football season, I'm on there daily and I've gotten a ton of good info there - some of which doesn't get posted onto espn or si.com until the next day.

[Word Nerd]

I like it and use it almost daily. The purpose isn't altogether different from the purpose of these forums; it's just a different format for finding and sharing information, networking, getting ideas, wordplay, etc. I didn't get it until I was following quite a few people and using the hashtags.

[Halftime Hope]

Twitter is very useful if you have a passion or an interest that you want to stay informed about.  You can follow people who are into that same interest, locations that host it, organizations that promote it, get breaking news about it, and so on.   It's much more concise than FB, and easier, especially, to browse if your passion has a pictorial aspect to it.

 

Another useful aspect of Twitter is that it's a good way to have content delivered to you.  I get the Astronomy Picture of the Day and TED talks by following their Twitter accounts.   Woo, hoo!

 

 

 

 

[kubiac]

It's just another mostly harmless noise feed, like the radio and email and Facetube and Pinbook. :D Turn it on and see if you like what you hear.

[Dandelion]

Katie summed up the purpose well.

 

I have a Twitter account, but haven't really used it much.  However, I did find it extremely useful this past summer when we were evacuated for over a week during the Black Forest Fire.  I followed our local sheriff on Twitter to get the latest updates from the command center. 

[Pawz4me]

If it were possible to have less than zero interest in something, that would be me and Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.

 

But I do have a Twitter account under a made-up name just so I can follow my favorite news sources.  I find it very handy for keeping up with what's going on in the world.

[SorrelZG]

But I do have a Twitter account under a made-up name just so I can follow my favorite news sources. I find it very handy for keeping up with what's going on in the world.

Yes! I don't do twitter but was thankful for it last week. It seems to be the best way to get up to the minute updates on important events in my current country of residence (including safety warnings).