Why Do I Twitter?

You know, I'm still not sure.  Ross Mayfield has a list of excuses I could use and provides me with reassurance that my poking around on it is, indeed, worth my time.

Ross wrote:

I do think the the interruption tax is significant -- especially with the quickening of adoption.  You use your social network as a filter, which helps both in scoping participation within a pull model of attention management, but also to Liz's point that my friends are digesting the web for me and perhaps reducing my discovery costs.  But the affordance within Twitter of both mobile and web, that not only lets Anil use it (he is Web-only) is what helps me manage attention overload.  I can throttle back to web-only and curb interruptions, simply by texting off.

To quickly explain Twitter, it's this thing where you update your current status or say something either via IM, SMS or the web.  This means that your phone could very nearly vibrate all day long.

My friends have asked, "Why do you use that?"  I've never had a very good response.

However, I've kept my Twitter network under control.  I see others with about 50 people on it.  I've kept mine down to six so far.  I'm sure that won't last, but I've managed to keep it lean.

One fun thing I've noticed is that people in my network are using it to crowdsource, as in the image below.

I've been able to answer trivial or important questions raised by my network several times this week. 

Oddly, I find that compelling.  At least at the moment, my Twitter network is (for me) a small community.  What's also interesting is that most of the people in my network have loaded up on contacts.  So they've actually been finding the service unusuable.

I had Twittered something recently and later had this exchange with Jay Fienberg:

jayf: is this a general biz lunch--should Anastasia come too?

jayf: or something more specific

OurFounder: What you don't hang on my every twitter?

jayf: I need a SXSW filter

I had Twittered something earlier that day that would have given him that answer, but the traffic in his network from SXSW was so heavy that he lost value in the stream.

And here we arrive at Twitter's biggest challenge.  It's UI is awful.  In your personal page, there's a control to receive either SMS or IMs.  I've never been able to get the IM interface to work reliably.  While at the computer, I have no need to get the SMSs.  But I can't easily shut them off temporarily.

It would also be nice to have selective filtering.  If someone is involved in a specific crowdsourcing action - like SXSW - I'd like to read all that on the web or in IM, but I don't want to vibrate every second of the day.  I'd also like to be able to highlight and perhaps even group my messages on the fly.

Today Jay is at home, so he's safe.  I can get everything from him.  Oops, now he just went to SpazzCon and is Twittering everything everyone says.  I should move him to web-only, or perhaps even a temporary page of people at SpazzCon.

Lastly, Twitter is in no way minable.  All status there is effectively lost after the event.  It's harder to search than IM.

So I'm still conflicted about Twitter.  I enjoy using it. I like telling Anastasia about apple soda or Prentiss about neotraditional development on the Washington Coast.  But I'm still not taking it very seriously.

Update:

Another update:

Slacker manager has an excellent post on making the most of Twitter.

(Twitter is certainly the front car on the hype-train this week!)

Technorati tags: ross mayfield, twitter, jay fienberg, anastasia fuller, prentiss riddle, sxsw, personal messaging, ed Vielmetti, slacker manager, hype

Blogged from the Sai Oak in Ocean Shores, Washington

Comments

[David Scott Lewis]

Better than Twitter: A phone call!! Or, SMS. Or, Skype. Twitter won't survive: It's worse than a technology in search of a market; it's a feature in search of an application.

[Ed Vielmetti]

Weekend Luddite was a good strategy this weekend. The weather has been spring, Dairy Queen is open, and when I have been inside during the day it has been time spent reducing the piles of paper on my desk.

I'll still go online after dinner.

My favorite part of Twitter is the private messages. This is the easiest way to get a short message into someone's IM stream and inbox at the same time.

I'm sure SXSW was better because of twittering that was going on there, I saw a bunch of people doing last minute planning. Heaven help anyone who was paying SMS charges to use it. When everyone heads home from Austin we'll see what happens.