Is Twitter going mainstream or what?
Feb 5th, 2009 by AZuidhof
Wow, lots of talk about Twitter today. Some say it’s a cocktail party, other find Twitter will quickly loose it’s value when used in the wrong way. That probably means we, the sociopaths for which Twitter was clearly designed initially, are loosing interest 
Me? Been using Twitter on and off for about nine months now. It is nice new way of connecting with other like minded developers, architects and whomever tends to share my geeky interests. On the other hand it didn’t give a real holy shit moment when I started using it. I remember I did get that feeling when I first started to use GMail, or started to program web pages with dynamic updates / AJAX goodness.
But people: today even Scott Hanselman blogs about it, giving us (them?) a handy user manual on How-To-Twitter. Which raises the question: is Twitter finally going mainstream? Well, I thought a little about this, but then realized that even lots of developers around me would say: “Scott Hanselman, who is that guy?” So maybe it just needs a little more time. In time, I will even be able to tweet with my neighbors and family… well, probably not me.
Currently I only use Twitter for keeping up with tech stuff. Not really interested in the social part, mostly using email or IM for that. I mean: it’s cool to have some fun on Twitter every now and then, but chit-chat is just not my thing. Talking about the weather, of how many push-ups I did today (none!), I save that for real life.
Not wanting to give you long and unwanted elaborations of Twitter, I just want to pass the mic to you: does Twitter work for you? Do you use it for social chat with family and friends. Us it for extending your technical network and keeping up with fellow nerds. Or is it just a waste of time, only good for procrastination?
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Thanks for the link to my post. For me, twitter is not a waste of time, and it does add value. But like any good thing, I’m learning that moderation and good sense rules the day. I use twitter to keep up-to-date about events/technology/trends in my industry. I use it to make new connections for the purposes of professional networking. I use it to converse quickly and simply with already established peers/friends/colleagues/acquaintances. I use it to learn (love it that everybody post links and retweets). I too lament the mainstream sway with Twitter, because frankly that is what dilutes the experience for me. Of course, it’s entirely possible I’m like many other “sheeple” and the shiny is wearing off. So when the next “new thing” comes along, maybe I’ll hop onto that particular early adopter bandwagon and leave Twitter. Maybe not. Time will tell.
@Dana: thanks for taking the time to head over here, welcome! The networking and making new connections part resonates with me the most in using Twitter. Must say I hardly know any people IRL that are among my following list, it’s all virtual people..