i've been using twitter for a while now. I mainly use it to quickly mine my friends for information, 'anyone know a good designer for cheap?', 'having problems invoking a ruby method from a cron job', 'in LA, need good tacos, and fast'.
Ask YC: Why should I care about Twitter?
11–20 of 55 posts
Re: Ask YC: Why should I care about Twitter?
#12I just don't get twitter. I saw some idiot who wrote an article using twitter. So of course each paragraph was 140 characters or less.
Just because you can use a tool to do something, doesn't mean you should.
IMHO, IM/IRC/email/blog all work far better for communication.
Re: Ask YC: Why should I care about Twitter?
#13I personally don't think you should. I myself find 'social networking' to be a large waste of time. people like to play silly games, and change things like mood, or the music they are playing. the social notice I want? was the phone call I got a 7am a few weeks ago a friend telling me her fiance and my former room-mate had died. or how about a text saying, "wanna meet for lunch?" I haven't used twitter, but the whole…
I've found Twitter to be a great aid to me w/ networking. For the most part, I add people I try to add people I meet at business networking events. I've gotten to know several people in the Seattle startup scene by going to real networking events and then continuing to follow up and build the relationships through Twitter.
Speaking of lunch, I've used it for that as well. Once your friends start using Twitter enough, it's easy to shoot them a message and ask if they want to grab lunch especially if they're in the same area.
Re: Ask YC: Why should I care about Twitter?
#14Twitter is well suited to certain kinds of lifestyles, and pretty much useless for others. I don't use it because none of my friends use it, and I find it more cumbersome and limiting than other services, but if you run with a crowd with which it's reached a critical mass it can be a useful tool for quick-hit communication.
Re: Ask YC: Why should I care about Twitter?
#15We're using twitter as a microblog for the latest info about priceadvance (http://twitter.com/priceadvance). The twitter widget is sitting on priceadvance.com. Easy way to keep users up to date without installing wp or something custom.
Re: Ask YC: Why should I care about Twitter?
#16I personally don't. I like to listen to the 'This Week in Tech' podcast, and those guys are obsessed with Twitter. I groan loudly every time the conversation comes back to Twitter which is like every ten minutes or so. It has almost become unbearable. Between that and TechChrunch, I've entered backlash-mode on the service, and I have never even used it.
Re: Ask YC: Why should I care about Twitter?
#17it is like a simpler IM
Re: Ask YC: Why should I care about Twitter?
#18Well, I've tried twitter for few weeks and ended up turning most of it off, because honestly, I don't give a damn that you're eating lunch at some new restaurant, or giving your dog a bath, or watching TV with your wife.
I find the service is basically a big giant intrusion into my life. 99% of the crap that pops up I just don't care about. 99% I put into the thing I can guarantee others don't care about either.
I think this social networking stuff has huge scaling problems outside of the navel gazing that happens both in the valley and during one's college years. Most people outside of these zones feel neither the need nor the desire to be that connected to others.
This isn't a knock on twitter as a service, just a general observation. It's going to take a profound change in thinking to create a world that twitter and others can truly exploit. This could also just be this Gen X'er showing his age, so take my comment with a grain of salt.
Re: Ask YC: Why should I care about Twitter?
#19It just turns out Twitter focuses conversation in a different way than email, IM, blogs, status messages, etc. And if you are interested in that type of conversation, then you should care.
Re: Ask YC: Why should I care about Twitter?
#20AIM Away Messages for Geeks.