"Okay," Maggie writes, "So what is Twitter?"
She continues: "You should be pleased and proud that I am asking you this question. I recently had a conversation with a person about technology and am feeling like my parents... the other person said she goes to her tenagers for help/info. I'm asking you! The always young, the always informed, go-to guy. (Don't panic. I don't want you to buy anything!)"
Well, Maggie, flattery will get you somewhere, even if you aren't the Maggie, that is, Maggie Gyllenhaal (left). Or maybe you are! Hmmm! Either way, I think I would summarize Twitter as "the social networking tool with ADHD." Or perhaps simply: "Facebook on speed."
Sign up, and you can post unlimited updates on your status – a vague term meaning everything from what you're eating to where it itches to what you're just so darn mad about – but you're limited to 140 characters, and not an vowel more. Which means, in Twitter terms, that you are "micro-blogging," that is to say, blogging in short bursts, not blogging about the Micronauts.
Users click to follow your Twitters (read: stalk you), and you do the same. I've been Twittering for a couple of months and am all a'twitter for it. With sharing options, your Twitter status can also be your Facebook status, and/or can be embedded into blogs, as I'm doing there in column 3 on this page.
I've also been following Twitters from some interesting folk, including singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles ("Not Going to Write You a Love Song"), who Twitters from the tour that she's about to open for the Counting Crows. You know, just an ordinary life.
So, yes, Maggie Whoever-You-Are, I recommend you start Twittering, even if you have a decent attention span. Heck, even Mel Cool: Mall Cop is Twittering, and if that's not a scary thought, what is?
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