My previous article was about connectivity, in particular social networking websites such as myspace. In this article I will focus on a website called twitter, which is also in fact a social networking site. The key difference though, is that most social networking sites require the use of a PC whereas twitter functions mainly through the use of a mobile phone.
Twitter is a micro-blogging service that allows people to send messages, limited to 140 characters, via sms, instant messaging, or email to the twitter website. Updates are sent for example by sms, and are then displayed on the user’s profile page. The messages are also instantly delivered to all the users who have requested to receive them. “Twitter was founded in March 2006 by San Francisco start-up company Obvious Corp.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter).
All different sorts of messages can be found on twitter. For example, looking at the website at 12:04 on Sunday September 16 2007, the second message from the top warns users for a virus. Most of the messages however, are silly updates on what someone is doing at the moment, such as someone writing that they have just taken a shower.
In the video added at the bottom of the article, CBS has done a short report on twitter, how it works, and whether it is an interesting addition to the loads of social networking websites that already exist.
In my honest opinion, which is obviously also shared by the lady in the video, twitter is completely useless and pretty lame. I don’t understand why people are interested to know what someone is doing every single moment of the day, or why people would take the effort to send a text message or email to let people know what they are doing. I wonder if modern technology has allowed people to go a bit too far.
However, I do think that it is amazing what can be done in the area of mobility. Modern technology never stops renewing itself and is always being challenged to produce newer and better things. It makes me curious to see what new things will be formed in five or ten years.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter
http://www.crunchbase.com/company/twitter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ouUrDZtMGM
