After using
Twitter (with
twhirl) for about two days, I think I've identified the three ways which I use it (at least at the moment).
- Messaging friends (although most of my friends are Luddites who don't use twitter yet!). It feels like a halfway-house between Facebook chat and email. Using Facebook chat can sometimes be quite stressful as I often feel under pressure to give a prompt response, which can be quite distracting. Also I have to be on Facebook, as does the friend I'm trying to contact. Also it seems to disconnect quite often, which sucks.
- Getting news updates. I use an RSS reader for keeping up with blogs, and it has pop-up notifications, but for some reason I like getting news through Twitter. It feels more like a continuous stream of information, and feels more "live".
- Thinking out loud. Earlier today I was in the queue at my bank, feeling a bit impatient, and I just felt like Tweeting "I don't like queuing". It just felt like something I'd like to share.
My current Twitter setup is:
- Twitter: Obviously.
- twhirl: A desktop client that means I don't have to be on the Twitter web page constantly.
- Ping.fm: a web service that broadcasts my tweets to other services, such as Facebook (my Facebook status is now my latest tweet - good for my Luddite friends mentioned earlier), and this blog.
- Mobile phone: for tweeting via SMS.
