September 30, 2009

Twitter Is For Kids

I recently told a friend, who shall remain nameless (he lives in Vancouver and works for a gaming company) that I use Twitter. He thought this was ridiculous and dismissed Twitter as a distraction for 15-year-old girls. I asked him if he was serious and his response was that Twitter was a waste of time.

Wow! For a moment I thought I was talking to a senior citizen in a nursing home. My friend, who shall remain nameless, is almost 40 years old and no stranger to technology. He uses MSN Messenger but refuses to join Facebook. He also uses a BlackBerry to send text messages but has never owned an MP3 player.

So how does a guy like this become so clueless when it comes to Twitter? Maybe he’s not alone. Maybe you think that Twitter is a waste of time because you’ve never used it.

Is MSN Messenger or text messaging used primarily by teenage girls? Of course not. Twitter and Facebook updates have become as commonplace as text messaging with a lot of people. It makes me laugh when people don’t understand a technology and dismiss it as being useless.

I used Twitter during the Toronto International Film Festival to tell people where I was, what movie I was seeing and to promote my film reviews on this website. Using Twitter on my iPhone I could find out which films were generating a buzz or tell others that the film I just watched received a standing ovation.

Here are some reasons you may want to use Twitter:

  • If you want immediate feedback on news and events before any news outlet or Google, Twitter is your best bet for real-time news.
  • It’s a great way to find out if any of your friends are nearby and meet up.
  • Use it to promote your blog. I use Twitter to promote film reviews on my blog.
  • If you’re looking for advice or feedback on a particular topic then tweet about it. I asked for a recommendation on kiosk software and got a response in 48 hours from someone at Kioware. As a result I purchased their Kioware Lite product.

Twitter is not just for kids. If you’re a bit of a Luddite you may not know any better. Maybe you’ve just been living under a rock for the last year. I’m not saying that you have to love Twitter or that you’re a loser because you don’t tweet. Just don’t dismiss something when you haven’t got a clue what it is.

Still not convinced? Here are a few sites that provide some great reasons for using Twitter:

Posted in Twitter at 10:06 PM