I use Twitter and enjoy keeping up to date on what my Vangroovy and übertech friends are doing or interested in. Twitter is a way to send out updates/information in 140 characters or less to friends that subscribe via IM/mobile phone/Web.In response to danah’s survey, here are my responses.
First, the practical question. Can i quote you?
[X] Yes, and you *must* use my real name.
[ ] Yes, but please use a pseudonym and don’t use any identifying information.
[ ] No, please just use this for your own weird thoughts.
1. Why do you use Twitter? What do you like/dislike about it?
I initally resisted Twitter because I didn’t really believe I had anything valuable to say and believed media reports that I would just be reading about what friends had for breakfast or music they were listening to while workout out. I am really glad I signed up because it is an incredibly valuable information source for finding out relevant information about friends. For example, when a friend finds an interesting website from a usability perspective, they will twitter it, when a friend is going to be in the media, they will twitter it, when a friend has read an interesting book, they will twitter it. I don’t know how I could find this information out. I get the same value as when some of my friends have their social bookmarks in the blog RSS feed. I am kept up to date and feel better informed. Of course, I also like to know social things going on in my friends lives and I do only have personal friends on twitter or people in the digital media world whom I respect.
What I like about it is that I am learning how to be a better Twitterer, just like I feel that the quality of my blogging is improving by not blogging all the time, but rather focusing on quantity but quality. I also receive the twitter messages on my mobile phone so I am able to keep up to date on my friends whereever I am. At the same time, if I am busy, I am not forced to check my mobile, the way I am when I receive an email notification. I also like how it integrates into my Facebook profile through an app.
I don’t really have any complaints at the moment.
2. Who do you think is reading your Tweets? Is this the audience you want? Why/why not? Tell me anything you think of relating to the audience for your Tweets.
My close Techy friends read my Tweets. My “normal” friends don’t understand what Twitter is about. This is exactly the audience I want because I don’t treat Twitter as a purely social tool. I use it differently than my status messages on Facebook because my Techy friends are busy and I don’t believe they want to hear about my breakfast plans but information that is important to them, such as a recent talk I gave, or a book I’m recommending. I am aware of my audience much more than pownce, or Facebook, or my blog because I believe that all my friends that have added me to their list get their twitter messages on their mobile. I don’t want to waste their time, which is why I am thinking about what I write.
3. How do you read others’ Tweets? Do you read all of them? Who do you read/not read and why? Do you know them all?
I use my mobile phone to receive Tweets. I do read all of them. Some of my friends are well-known in the techy/web2.0 world and I value what they said and from a personal side, I am interested in their lives. There are a couple of people that I know via their status online/digital media rather than knowing as a personal friend. I admit that I still don’t understand completely how Twitter works, for some reason some of my friends I don’t receive on my mobile phone at all and I have to view their Tweets on my home page.
4. What content do you think is appropriate for a Tweet? What is inappropriate? Have you ever found yourself wanting to Tweet and then deciding against it? Why?
I wouldn’t Tweet something confidential or that I felt shouldn’t be made public (e.g. a friend losing his job) or anything sexual. I don’t know the appropriateness of this, but I don’t feel necessary to let the world know everything in my life as I am fairly private person. If I didn’t have anyone following my Tweets perhaps I would be sharing more about my mundane life. I think of Tweets as a part of my digital identity (like my ma.gnolia bookmarks, my Facebook profile, and my Flickr photos). In each space, the bounds of what is appropriate or inappropriate differ.
5. Are your Tweets public? Why/why not? How do you feel about people you don’t know coming across them? What about people you do know?
My Tweets are public. I am aware that they are public, so personal/private/intimate things that I don’t want to share with the world are not tweets. If my Tweets lead people to my blog or my flickr photos, or facebook page, that is cool, because I don’t believe any one online space is me, but rather each identity that I share online tells something about me, create a digital whole. It someone is just reading my Tweets, they are getting an incomplete picture which is why I think I share multiple digital identities with my friends. We are all are contacts/friends on Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, blogs, and del.icio.us or ma.gnolia. I don’t believe it is just because we want to try out new things. I think we just want to have a more complete perspective of what is going on in our friends’ lives and are able to get different perspectives from these online tools.
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