
Why do people think Twitter is so great? I feel like I'm missing something - domp

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ryan
You're not the only one. After the explosion at SXSW there was a lot of "I
don't get it" noise in the blogosphere
(<http://drumsnwhistles.com/2007/03/11/twitter-this/)> with some claiming that
that Twitter has already (<http://www.flickr.com/photos/baratunde/416990545/)>
or will soon (<http://ross.typepad.com/blog/2007/03/twitter_tips_th.html)>
'jump the shark' (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark).>

P.S. is would be great if comments allowed some kind of wiki link syntax like
[<http://blah> friendly name] :)

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Alex3917
Sociologically, twitter is very different from other communication forms. AIM
and Skype are designed for communicating thoughts and ideas. Twitter, however,
is designed for telecocooning. Telecocooning is traditionally defined as
sending little "presence pokes" to people. For example, just saying hi or
sending someone a picture of a heart or a smiley face. The point of these
messages isn't the ideas they contain, but rather the message itself. That is,
just getting any message from someone shows that the other person is thinking
about them and cares about them.

Traditionally people telecocoon with their two or three closest friends.
However, Twitter lowers the telecocooning barrier so you can telecocoon with
many more friends for the same effort. People tend to just send messages like
"ahh homework sucks" or "heh stuck at the library." You aren't really
communicating anything intelligent, but you are building a feeling of group
solidarity by letting people around you know what's up. It also helps people
to find where their friends are if they want to meet up.

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domp
I'm not buying the telecocooning thing. Sounds like more of a catch phrase
more than anything else. I can put up an away message that says whatever I'm
doing much like a "presence poke". Or I can just blast a text to my friends
letting them know what meaningless task I'm involved in at the moment.

I can see how it can show how you care or are thinking of them but if
telecocooning lowers the barrier doesn't that trivialize a message? It's like
giving a myspace bulletin to your whole friends list but telling them
something less important than what is usually sent around.

I do like that you can use it to meet up with friends. That's a cool feature.

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Alex3917
I believe telecocooning comes from Mizuko Ito's research, but Howard Rheingold
cites it in Smart Mobs as well.

I think lowering the barriers does trivialize the message in some ways. For
example, it would build less of a bond between any two individuals. However, I
think it builds a tighter bond between the individual and their group of
friends as a whole.

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domp
There is so much buzz around this company and I just don't get it. You can
keep everyone up to date on what you do. Don't people already do this with
AIM, Myspace, friendster, blogs, etc.? I just don't see a need to know if
someone is listening to a Bono track right now. I'd like to get some feedback
on some people who love the site.

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volida
there will be always place for new implementations because existing ones
create gaps or cause a new wave of needs, that takes force by users that are
bored of something they already used.

if you accept that what we have available yesterday is enough for everyone
today then you accept that there is no space for new ideas.

but the reason there are ideas is because we are never satisfied.

though, i had also the same reaction when i first heared about netvibes broad
use and I wondered why contrary to its simplicity. But its one of these times
that simplicity of creating something not conceived by lots of people, can
grasp significant usage due to the audience ready to adopt that peculiar
experience, that later only becomes familiar and how i could live without it
or just a trend that will pass...

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JMiao
I heard about Twitter about 5 months ago, but this thing seemed to explode
after SXSW.

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domp
Yeah I'm thinking it's mostly just buzz and the aftermath of SXSW. A friend
did point out that it's good for if you're in the city and want to know if
friends are somewhere close. This however does not apply to my 90s Zack Morris
phone.

I compare it to those overly hyped bands that you only hear about either at
SXSW or around awards shows. They never get a good record deal and fade away
very quickly.

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rms
Really good marketing at SXSW. They had big screens in public places that
scrolled random twitters. If you've ever stared at the scrolling Google search
thing on Google's campus, you can understand the appeal.

