Well, I think the thing that is "good" (vs. just new or hip, which is certainly part of it) about Twitter is that it combines the self-centeredness of blogging with the laziness of a 140 character limit. Now one can broadcast oneself to the uninterested masses without even having to come up with anything to say. I think it's crap, but I also think that as long as people are starved for attention it's crap that isn't going away.
Well, I don't think it's either good or bad in a moral sense. As you say, people want it, so in a sense that makes it good. But it also has a very low signal:noise ratio, which, in a sense, makes it bad.
I don't have a problem with it, it's not like it hurts anything, I just think that it generally appeals to people interested in it for marketing/PR purposes or to people with insecurities. Neither of these purposes strikes me as especially noble.
When you hug a fmaily memenber, what is the signal/noise ratio? What people fail to realize about twitter is that it's not about information, it's about sense of beling involved in someone's life. Sense being the keyword. When it's mutual it's just a digital stand-in for a hug and a family small-talk.
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 27.7 ms ] threadBasically sums up Twitter in 140 characters.
Twittering is what happens while Life is passing you by.
That said, Shaq is amusing: http://twitter.com/THE_REAL_SHAQ
I don't have a problem with it, it's not like it hurts anything, I just think that it generally appeals to people interested in it for marketing/PR purposes or to people with insecurities. Neither of these purposes strikes me as especially noble.