My Favorites Bar

When, at the beginning of the semester, I discovered that we would have to sign up for a Twitter account, I couldn't help but let out a groan. Frankly, I thought that Twitter was a pointless, shortened version of Facebook for the middle aged.

However, my experience proved anything but. I enjoyed working with Twitter from the start-up page all the way through. I found it a lot more user friendly than Facebook was when I first started using it.

The premise of Twitter is simple: you have 140 characters to say something, anything. While I originally equated this with Facebook's status feature, I can see that it has a lot more potential than that. While Facebook statuses are generally about what a given person is doing, Twitter is more about headlines of what is going on or trending anywhere.

This idea has repercussions both good and bad. From a positive end, it allows thousands of "followers" instantly receive a message to help keep them informed. This is a great way to help encourage community.

However, when you only have 140 characters to say what you want to say, it makes it difficult to explain complex situations or ideas. Thus, it leads to the polarization of ideas. Even so, the inclusion of links helps to mitigate this effect.

At the end of it all, unlike Second Life, I think I will continue using my Twitter account because I find it a useful tool to give me the "highlights" of what is going on in the world. For better or worse, Twitter has been added to my favorites bar.

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