I am a big, fat TWITter...you should be one too!

While I have enjoyed talking about large, blue, digitally produced phalluses (phalli?) someone asked an interesting question I felt it would be a good idea to address here.

I sent out a Facebook status a few days ago inquiring if any of my friends were on Twitter that I did not already know about. I got few responses. Then someone asked my why I felt the need to Twitter (Tweet) even though I copiously use Facebook AND a blog to share my brain droppings.

Allow me to explain Twitter for the uninitiated, unwashed masses who are unaware of it.

Twitter is best described as a "micro-blogging" service that was born in 2006. It is called "micro" because no individual posts on Twitter can contain more than 140 characters.

In other words, the two sentences above would have cut off at the second use of the word Twitter.

Twitter users can make as many 140 character maximum posts as they want. You can Tweet (Tweet=to make a post on Twitter) what you wish. Getting ready to watch the new episode of Axmen on History and you want to remind people? Tweet it. Got a cool web site you want others to see? Tweet the link. Read a really good article about politics or the economy or something truly relevant like the Octo-Mom? Tweet the page. (Just kidding...PLEASE DON'T) It is a fast, unique way for sending short thoughts out into the cyberspace.

I know what you are thinking.

Really...I do. I know this sounds like an ADD kid's dream come true. And some Twitter users do treat it as such, sending a digital diarrhea of blurbs about bathroom habits, bedtimes, beer choices, blind dates, or cries for help at an almost frenetic pace. I will be honest and admit that I tend to send these kind of tweets occasionally. Here are a few examples of my own random ADD tweets from the past few days...


Each Tweet begins with my Twitter username (SpinyNorman...naturally) and then shares my thought.

- Ugh...the weather outside is about as pleasant as four week old Filet Mignon...

- is waiting for Watchmen to start...I hate Regal First Look...

- is wondering why my wife is getting phone calls from Hugh Douglas on her cell phone...Hmmmmm...

- heading home...wishing a sniper would take out these damn accident rubber-neckers backing up I-95...

- just overheard someone bragging about being fired from Subway...that's not an accomplishment sewwtheart... (I am thinking sewwheart=sweetheart)

- Would people who burn books also burn Kindles? Or just hit delete...

- doesn't work for the Eagles so I can say how much management SUCKS!!!


I think you get the point. Twitter can be used only as an ADD person's online journal and that is how a lot of people tend to see it. It is "lifecasting", sending out digital blurbs about your day and it can be fun, but there is a much more interesting side to the Twitterverse...mindcasting.

I first read about mindcasting here.

A large number of people on Twitter are beginning to use the service as a sort of large web browser. They find people on Twitter, people they either know from their everyday lives or complete strangers, and they follow them. Then these people they are following bring an almost constant stream of fresh web content for them to read.

Every day...free of charge.

A small example perhaps...

Let's say I am an Under Water Basket Weaver. I have been one for many years and I am good at my job. Like all good Under Water Basket Weavers I need to keep current on the state of the field. Under Water Basket Weaving is a tough racket, as we all know, and a Weaver who falls behind stays behind. But Under Water Basket Weaving is a time consuming task, requiring many hard hours on the job. I try to read and search the Internet for the latest Brazilian techniques when I can (Under Water Basket Weaving is HUGE in Brazil) but I am only one, single over worked Basket Weaver in a sea of thousands of viscious competitors all trying to steal my Weaving dollar. Twitter, MINDCASTING on Twitter, can help. I have fifteen friends I have stayed in touch with since our days in the Under Water Basket Weaving program at Harvard (It's my example...suspend disbelief). They are all moderately to tremendously successful Weavers. They are all on Twitter as I am. Whenever one of us comes across some great web sites or articles about our under appreciated industry we can Tweet those locations and all can benefit from the find of one. Instead of just one mind looking for information, together we are SIXTEEN minds, all sharing the same interest. Networking to help each other out builds the noble fraternity of Under Water Basket Weavers everywhere.

Mindcasting doesn't just have to be business related. I myself follow dozens of news agencies, from the NYT, to the WASHINGOTN POST, to USNEWS AND WORLD REPORT. I also follow people who share my pleasure interests, not simply business. Sports too. I follow favorite authors or bloggers. I currently have 139 people I am following. That means I have 139 minds scouring the Internet each day and showing me (not just me, but everyone they follow) what they find that is interesting or helpful. I do the same for the 80 people who follow me (no jokes about my Twitter size...I am still new to this). Twitter is my Drift net for the web, catching me dozens of interesting and insightful fish every day. Can't you feel your mind swell at the possibilities?!?

Another added benefit to being a devoted user of Twitter impacts this very blog. Every time I create a new post of wordy confusion (See here) I send a notice out into Twitter. Since I have begun using Twitter on a regular basis, traffic on my blog has doubled...almost tripled. Maybe Twitter has brought you and I together. A cyber union that almost certainly would never have happened. Did you feel that? The universe just moved...for us...

Uh...sorry...that got kind of creepy there didn't it?

So anyway...TWITTER...not only is it a fun word to say over and over again...it makes you a better, well rounded person.

Try it and find out for yourself. And if you do...follow ME!!!