(Twitter icon bird set, created by Mirjami Manninen, can be downloaded here)

It’s been about a month now that I’ve been using the Twitter social-networking platform and I have to admit, it’s been an interesting study of how human communication is evolving through our interaction and usage of new software communication platforms. Now to be truthful, I’ve been wary of starting up a Twitter account because like anyone else viewing it from the outside, I couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Indeed, the most common question posed when someone hears you’re “on Twitter” is what exactly is Twitter. The most common explanations are that Twitter is a “micro-blogging platform” due to its restricting entries to no more than 140 characters or that’s it’s just another social networking outlet to stay in touch with a group of friends/acquaintances. Although my experience with Twitter is still new and thus, rather limited, I think this other definition sums up Twitter best – Twitter is whatever you make it out to be. Confused enough? Well, let me share my own experience with this platform to shed some light on this.

Now as I mentioned above, I wasn’t very keen on joining Twitter simply because the few times I perused the site, I was either confused in trying to figure out how to follow the various conversation streams going on over multiple accounts or being rather put-off with the numerous entries by various users sharing details of what they were eating for lunch or dinner (I still can’t comprehend why anyone would think that others are so interested in hearing what you’re eating. I wonder how many of them would bother to pick the phone and call a friend to tell them “Hey, guess what? I decided to have the roast beef au jus with stir-fried zucchini and a glass of Merlot. Just thought you’d be interested”). So, there didn’t seem to be anything of note within Twitter that would spur my interest in either joining or participating in such a social networking site. That is, until I realized that Click here to continue reading »”Twitter and Me – My Trip ‘Round The Twitterverse”