Explain Twitter to me in 140 characters

pickarooney

I'm no luddite. I have a computing background and am not easily phased by new technologies. Some, I choose to shun. I've never been a fan of mobile telephony and don't get the obsession with phones, but I can at least understand the basic premise of why people use them.

I have a facebook account. I don't really know why - it just seems to be endless reams of irrelevant nonsense but occasionally I get a message from someone I actually regret not having kept in contact with so up to a point I'm cool with it.

Twitter makes me feel old. Or lost. Or stupid. But mostly confused. What exactly is it for? How does one get into Twitter? Where does one start? How does it all link up. More importantly, why is Twitter?

Can anyone explain either in a humorous or serious manner, what the Christ it's all supposed to be about?

Cookie_Monster

twitter is shit, don't even need 140

chin_grin

B0llocks.

biko

Did you check the Social Network forum?

Apparently it all started with Hemingway...

Cheeky_gal

Twitter is for the gheys

starbelgrade

I am retard.

Cookie_Monster

starbelgrade wrote: »

I am retard.

qft

Xavi6

Twitter is a fantastic source for breaking news and brief commentary.

It used to be cool to have Twitter. Now it's just normal, while saying it's sh*t or ghey is the new 'cool'.

Penn

A lot of celebrities use it, and some of them are batsh*t crazy so it's fun to listen to them. And it's a lot like the Facebook Walls but without all the "Mary lost a fluffy sheep from her farm. Can you help her find it?" bullsh*t and "Mary likes JOIN THIS GROUP IF U NOW SOME1 WHO HAS AT LAST 1 LETTER IN THERE NAME!!!!!!!!".

I hate Mary.

Basically, share links, stories, and see what the biggest topics people are talking about worldwide and share your thoughts or read theirs. There is a lot of funny stuff on Twitter. I was extremely skeptical at first, but it's pretty good. Basically just Facebook minus a lot of the crap. That's more than 140 characters, but this isn't Twitter so I couldnt give a rats ass.

Poor Uncle Tom

It's a text message you send to the public. Whether they see it is up to them.

Best bit is watching something like X factor or Coronation street or a footie match and following the hashtag (searching for tweets that contain the hashtag like #xfactor or #corrie or #footy) It's like, well, boards, but in real-time.

Asphyxia

I used to think it was fun and brilliant when I joined first as you do :rolleyes: now it's just meh! Knowing me I could get addicted to it again it's handy for quick little messages to people I do hate the fact that I have lost respect for a lot of celebs after "following" them some really are D**kheads in reality.

squod

Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite Shite

humanji

Stephen Fry said if best (or at least I think he said it), "Facebook is where you lie to your friends. Twitter is where you're honest with strangers."

I joined Twitter after a friend kept hassling me to. It's a bit of a waste, but it does have it's good points. In general, there's little reason to follow people who aren't famous. You might follow a friend if they were doing something in particular and would give live updates, but it's generally a waste of time.

Following famous people can be more interesting as some of them are insane. 50 Cent is mental and you can get a queens english translation of his tweets, which can be a giggle.

Steve Martin is hilarious and just writes bizarre stuff for the hell of it. Grahan Linehan of Father Ted fame is a good source of world news that you don't always hear about. And for when you've got nothing but time, you've got strange ones like Drunk Hulk or Angry Batman to make you wonder what people do with their time.

All in all, Twitter is a way of wasting time. It's fairly pointless, but can have it's uses.

Now, how do I condense all that into 140 characters?

pickarooney

humanji wrote: »

Following famous people can be more interesting as some of them are insane. 50 Cent is mental and you can get a queens english translation of his tweets, which can be a giggle.

Steve Martin is hilarious and just writes bizarre stuff for the hell of it.

I have no idea how to read it though. I clicked on the Steve Martin link but all I can see is a series of seemingly unrelated messages from random people. Where are the things that Steve Martin writes and what are all those other people referring to? Why would I want to read what they're saying?

humanji

pickarooney wrote: »

I have no idea how to read it though. I clicked on the Steve Martin link but all I can see is a series of seemingly unrelated messages from random people. Where are the things that Steve Martin writes and what are all those other people referring to? Why would I want to read what they're saying?

Basically, you Tweet something, for example:

"Hello I'm Humanji"

Then if someone wants to reply to me, or reference me, they put an @ sign before my username, so your reply could be:

"@Humanji Hello, you big stud muffin"

So what you're seeing is Steve Martin replying to a load of people. Now, I'm not fully sure what you're seeing on the screen, but it should be a list of Tweets on the left. When you click on one of the ones with an @ in it, on the right hand side you should see the whole conversation that people are having. It's fairly confusing, so I don't bother with it.

If you sign up to an account, then you choose who you want to follow. Then whenever you login in, you'll see the Tweets that those people make, but you don't see the replies that they make (ie, you won't see any of the ones with @ in them).

It's a bit complicated when you first try to use it, but you get used to it. Though, if you haven't used it so far, there's little reason to start.

x3wiggles

I love Twitter. I think it's a great way to communicate. It's quicker than Facebook and it's realtime.
It filters out all the spam from Facebook and many sites e.g Tumblr have plug-ins for it.
It's great to keep up to date on all the news. For example, sky news have their own tweet feed and so do NewsTalk and BreakingNews.
Then you get the comedians who have funny tweets.
It's like a stream of Facebook status updates.
and when you look at someone's twitter page, you see them @people.
It's just replying to them.


Sometimes you get celebs replying to your tweets when you mention them. Its a really cool way to connect. Of course people are saying it's crap! Some people think Facebook is crap too.
But once you understand it, and get the hang of it, you begin to see it's full potential.

Like Facebook really.

trickobrien

pickarooney wrote: »

I'm no luddite. I have a computing background and am not easily phased by new technologies. Some, I choose to shun. I've never been a fan of mobile telephony and don't get the obsession with phones, but I can at least understand the basic premise of why people use them.

I have a facebook account. I don't really know why - it just seems to be endless reams of irrelevant nonsense but occasionally I get a message from someone I actually regret not having kept in contact with so up to a point I'm cool with it.

Twitter makes me feel old. Or lost. Or stupid. But mostly confused. What exactly is it for? How does one get into Twitter? Where does one start? How does it all link up. More importantly, why is Twitter?

Can anyone explain either in a humorous or serious manner, what the Christ it's all supposed to be about?

Twitter is a microblogging social network for people who have lost the will to live

Ghost Estate

Its like IRC, except there is only one channel and everyone is on ignore by default.