Having spent some time lately with some blogging "heavy hitters" who dismissed Twitter as an aggravating and pointless format, I couldn't agree more. I felt like I was with the old-timers saying "I don't get what those crazy bloggers/twitterers/text-messagers get out of this thing..."

So much of what is happening in new tech development is emergent ideas waiting for us to play with, experiment with, find applications for.
I for one plan on using Twitter to help communicate during a conference we are running the online experience for in London.

I'm increasingly a fan of the "(not quite) random walk" approach. Go where the energy and interest is. What Richard Oliver has refered to as purposive drift...

http://www.changethis.com/31.06.PurposiveDrift

Hi Andy: That looks like a good read, I've just downloaded it for later enjoyment.

Twitter = asynchronous chat, status updating, link archiving, tiny journaling, personal digital presencing system. Beyond Blogging.

I realize this is an older post, but someone just mentioned it ON twitter, and I was curious :)

Twitter strikes me as being the online equivalent of standing in line at Starbucks...you hear conversations around you, bits and pieces of lives of people you recognize but don't necessarily know intimately, and when something interests you, you toss in your opinion.

Referred your article to someone who recently asked me: "What's the point of twitter?"
It had the effect I wanted. I think they better understand to be a bit more optimistic and not in need of an end goal.
It's a format, a medium for connection.
Bring on the velcro!

You have touched on something that has bothered me for a long time: the notion that any activity must have a result that is valuable to the observer, regardless of the value it has to the actor. Interestingly, the observer often discounts the actual experience of the actor for a reductive, and, ultimately, depressive economic model. Using all our tools and toys, attributes and talents is

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower

Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees

Is my destroyer.

And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose

My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.

I dunno. I think its more useful as a short-term novelty item than a real-world application.

I honestly don't see much other than "OMG I'M SO DRUNK" or "I AM PROCRASTINATING" from college students texting from their phones. I, for example, am drinking some pretty low-brow whiskey right now, and am feeling the effects. So I texted twitter informing everyone I am drinking whiskey.

Ok? Now, I used to be pessimistic by nature, but I've recently gone through an self-revolution; now I am brimming with optimism.

I still say what's the point?

"Twitter = asynchronous chat, status updating, link archiving, tiny journaling, personal digital presencing system. Beyond Blogging."

Blogging is generally more than "OMG I AM SO DRUNK" or "Geeze this class is boring."

Twitter could have a good use; however, its use is determined by those who use it. Those who use it are generally like me: drunk 'dialing' a message because they're sitting in their apartment drinking alone. Pure boredom.

I don't care if you're about to vacuum, Linda! Shut up and effing do it already!