Can someone explain twitter to me?

[bigal40]

I really don't understand twitter - I thought it was famous people who wrote "I am eating dinner at X restaurant" and then a bunch of people subscribe to hear certain peoples tweets.

But if I search twitter for Nexus One there are thousands upon thousands of people just posting up different blog posts about it. Why do people tweet things like this? What do the # signs and the @ signs mean in there posts?

 

[SirStev0]

Thousands egocentric people like to believe millions of people care what they are doing ever 2 minutes. Millions of pathetic losers feel the need to interact with people while maintaining a safe distance are able to live vicariously through the tubes.

It is pretty simple really.

 

[OCGuy]

How did this thread from January get bumped back to the front page?

 

[FoBoT]

it is broadcast text messaging on the internet

 

[TecHNooB]

Thousands egocentric people like to believe millions of people care what they are doing ever 2 minutes. Millions of pathetic losers feel the need to interact with people while maintaining a safe distance are able to live vicariously through the tubes.

It is pretty simple really.

That sums up my existence on ATOT perfectly

 

[zoiks]

Thousands egocentric people like to believe millions of people care what they are doing ever 2 minutes. Millions of pathetic losers feel the need to interact with people while maintaining a safe distance are able to live vicariously through the tubes.

It is pretty simple really.

That's one aspect of it. Twitter however has its advantages. It's a really good way to attain up to date information before anyone else finds out. Case in point, I used it today when my train was late. After a quick twitter check using my cell phone, I found out that the previous train had issues with its brakes so the next train was 22min behind. Most people were leaving from the platform to commute via other means. I stuck around since I had new info. It's worked for me many many times.
There are other uses for it such as shopping, asking questions on something you need answers urgently on etc.

I think it's better for people to embrace technology and not be resistant to it. Everything has its niche and if you don't agree with it,it's probably a sign that you're getting old.

 

[meltdown75]

i use it to get updates on my sports teams. i don't follow any people, just teams. oh, and players as well - i don't have any on my list but you can also follow players.

people could make the same comments about online forums, facebook, etc etc and just the internet in general.

enough with the twitter hate already. it's useful for following sports and probably 10000 other things.

 

[Ausm]

clusterfuck comes to mind.

 

[meltdown75]

Thousands egocentric people like to believe millions of people care what they are doing ever 2 minutes. Millions of pathetic losers feel the need to interact with people while maintaining a safe distance are able to live vicariously through the tubes.

It is pretty simple really.

the only thing simple within the confines of your post is glaring ignorance.

 

[TallBill]

i use it to get updates on my sports teams. i don't follow any people, just teams. oh, and players as well - i don't have any on my list but you can also follow players.

people could make the same comments about online forums, facebook, etc etc and just the internet in general.

enough with the twitter hate already. it's useful for following sports and probably 10000 other things.

Some people have funny/meaningful things to say that are worth listening to as well. People just get frustrated because they don't understand something. I've seen ton of Facebook hate in general but it has been helpful in social networking for me.

 

[KeithTalent]

Repost!

KT

 

[SirStev0]

the only thing simple within the confines of your post is glaring ignorance.

I'm sorry did the big mean ATOT poster insult your sacred miniblog obsession.

I won't be so mean next time. Didn't mean to hurt your feelings or shake your faith in the holiness of twitter.

 

[TallBill]

I'm sorry did the big mean ATOT poster insult your sacred miniblog obsession.

I won't be so mean next time. Didn't mean to hurt your feelings or shake your faith in the holiness of twitter.

Don't worry, you have not insulted anyone except yourself

 

[Jeffg010]

Melty the way you describe it would be useful but that's not how it is really being used. Million of people are tweeting their lives every 2 mins and that gives me a million good reasons why it fails for me. I don't give a crap about them. Now if some how it had useful tweets that gave me info I could use then it work for me, but it currently does not.

 

[TallBill]

Melty the way you describe it would be useful but that's not how it is really being used. Million of people are tweeting their lives every 2 mins and that gives me a million good reasons why it fails for me. I don't give a crap about them. Now if some how it had useful tweets that gave me info I could use then it work for me, but it currently does not.

Well its not like anyone is forcing users to follow other tweets. You do actually get to select what/who you follow..

 

[Jeffg010]

Some people have funny/meaningful things to say that are worth listening to as well. People just get frustrated because they don't understand something. I've seen ton of Facebook hate in general but it has been helpful in social networking for me.

The reason facebook works for me is most of my friends and family use it. I can contact them on the fly and interact with them. Tweeting just seem to be random crap every few mins.

 

[Jeffg010]

Well its not like anyone is forcing users to follow other tweets. You do actually get to select what/who you follow..

True I'd love to have the Pittsburgh Transit tweet but they don't. Stuff I find useful is not there at this point that so it non use for me.

 

[TallBill]

The reason facebook works for me is most of my friends and family use it. I can contact them on the fly and interact with them. Tweeting just seem to be random crap every few mins.

I post random crap on Facebook and my friends and family love it. It's funny, but only if you really know me. Also, there is always a joke built into it somehow. I personally don't use Twitter, I can just see why people use it.

 

[vshah]

i follow cyanogen so i know when he updates his rom

 

[Mucho]

I use it to get update from some of my favorite columnists, and magazines.

 

[Geekbabe]

A place where I go to win things

 

[MikeMike]

its the comment system from blogs, which are todays version of forums, compressed into random discussions

# means you are tagging it
@ means you are sending this specifically to someone.

 

[UglyCasanova]

That's one aspect of it. Twitter however has its advantages. It's a really good way to attain up to date information before anyone else finds out. Case in point, I used it today when my train was late. After a quick twitter check using my cell phone, I found out that the previous train had issues with its brakes so the next train was 22min behind. Most people were leaving from the platform to commute via other means. I stuck around since I had new info. It's worked for me many many times.
There are other uses for it such as shopping, asking questions on something you need answers urgently on etc.

I think it's better for people to embrace technology and not be resistant to it. Everything has its niche and if you don't agree with it,it's probably a sign that you're getting old.

How did you do this? Are Twitter feeds searchable? I thought you needed to be subscribed to whomever it is doing the "tweeting" in order to read it.

In any case, I still don't understand the point. I can see the attraction in being able to follow someone or something, but I thought you can do the same thing by signing up to the famous person/group's email newsletter. That makes more sense to me since it seems like a much less restrictive way to communicate. Twitter just seems like text messages on the computer, which hell might be why it is so popular.

I guess I just need someone to explain how this can be useful to me. The media has touted this as being revolutionary and the way of the future, but I just don't seem to understand why it is so great. I'm sure that there are useful features to it like the above poster just mentioned, my confusion and disbelief at the popularity and the media awe that Twitter has is probably just a result of my ignorance on the subject.

 

[Malak]

@UglyCasanova Twitter is not useful to you in anyway. Just ignore it, it is completely worthless. Facebook is the only thing that matters. #duh

 

[silverpig]

How did you do this? Are Twitter feeds searchable? I thought you needed to be subscribed to whomever it is doing the "tweeting" in order to read it.

In any case, I still don't understand the point. I can see the attraction in being able to follow someone or something, but I thought you can do the same thing by signing up to the famous person/group's email newsletter. That makes more sense to me since it seems like a much less restrictive way to communicate. Twitter just seems like text messages on the computer, which hell might be why it is so popular.

I guess I just need someone to explain how this can be useful to me. The media has touted this as being revolutionary and the way of the future, but I just don't seem to understand why it is so great. I'm sure that there are useful features to it like the above poster just mentioned, my confusion and disbelief at the popularity and the media awe that Twitter has is probably just a result of my ignorance on the subject.

1. On some twitter clients you can just have them feed you tweets that happen nearby (within 5 km, 10 km etc). Just keep refreshing to see what is going on near you. If you're at a train station and are wondering what is going on, try it and you'll find out what's going on if anyone knows.

2. You can search for words or terms. The # is a sort of tag. Search #nexuss for example.

3. It is PERFECT for headlines. I subscribe to @BreakingNews, @economist, @nytimes, and some local news agencies/newspapers as well. You get all your news headlines as they happen.

3a. Because of the above, you can customize your own news feed. I have one account that follows mobile technology and wireless stuff. It is tied to my blog so when I make a post, it tweets the title. I have my personal account which I use to follow current events, business news, friends and a few other random accounts.

4. If you just tweet lame stuff like "had a tuna sandwich. it was good." no one will follow you. The best twitter accounts are topical ones.

4a. Thus, the best way to use twitter is to follow interesting things and not post much. Retweet things you find interesting to your friends. If you're just a regular dude, then only post things you think your friends will like.

5. You can have an account that tries to get followers, but it has to be topical and interesting. If you are a specialist in a field, make tweets/comments/links to blog posts/news updates/etc all in that field and you will get people interested in it to follow you. If you interject that stream with a ton of random crap, you will lose followers.