to just not "get" Twitter?

[Bellagio]

I feel like such an old fart writing this but I just don't get it. What's the attraction? Is it a bit like having your own blog famousness or is it just people lke being able to contact celebrities?
What is so great about it? What are so many people twittering about ?
Would anybody that is an enthusiastic user (is this the right word? Or are you called a twitter?....see- clueless) like to come along and educate me in this strange world I know nothing of?
Or am I intact NBU and the rest of you are as much in the dark as me?

YANBU I don't get it either. I even joined it the other day and tried to find someone worth following but have not yet had any lightbulb moments where suddenly I say "oh yes that's why it's so popular". I also can't understand how people have time to twitter all day long and worry that all we are doing now is condensing our lives down to 40 word sound bites instead of actually communicating with each other. I-phones and blackberry's are also causing this - I get far fewer long, chattier emails from friends than I did a year or so ago.

Sorry, bit long-winded me, perhaps that's why I don't "get" Twitter.

Let me join you in ignorance.

I presume if you are not into blogs (reading or writing), chances are you won't get twitter either.

It has uses in a professional context, for marketing, social networking and pointing people to information. I think that is more interesting than following Lily Allen.

I'm parking my chair here and watching with eager interest. I joined about a year ago and didn't have a clue what to do on there; have hardly been back since.

Ah good I'm not alone then!
I see what you mean about people updating on the go, blackberries, iPhones etc.
Don't get me wrong, I worship my iPhone but I feel it's just, well, a bit sad really to document your every daily move. I guess it's a bit like people who update their FB status several times a day?

YANBU

It is completely dull. No ones life is so interesting that we need constantly updated about it.

One of my favourite bands did a web chat via twitter the other day - you basically send ?em a question (that only they can see) and they send you an answer, that only you can see. I hurriedly logged on to join twitter, so I could send them a v important question, and it turned out I already had an account, that I?d forgotten about. Anyway, I logged on, and saw that I?d only tweeted (?) twice in 3 years! I don?t get it either, and got bored very quickly, even when I was having a weird web-chat thing with the band. For all I know, it was some random office junior!

Yanbu-what is it for? I've had an account for a year and I have no idea!

Can I join too?? cos I don't get twitter either.
What exactly is the point - I do not want a constant mini-update on what someone is doing/saying etc. Or have I misunderstood?
I don't even feel particularly comfortable with phonecalls - I much prefer seeing people face to face and catching up properly for a good old chin-wag.
Call me old-fashioned!!

I just don't understand all the abreviations and @ symbols and who the hell is talking about who?? Although tbh I don't really care either.

Old fart alert

YABU! Twitter is great. But, unless you're following the 'right' people, you probably won't get it.

It's like being in huge pub, where you're privy to all kinds of conversations. You can join in or just listen.

The key to making it work for you is in the people that you follow.

Don't just jump in and follow a load of celebrities. They're (mostly) on there just for self-promotion and you will get little of real value from them. There are exceptions, and some of them will reply to you and/or are very funny/entertaining and work hard to make their tweets engaging.

Follow news sites, sportspeople, politicians.

There are also loads of MNetters on there. If you have 'friends' on there, then it's a very fast-moving conversation - the pub analogy works even better here.

And you'll find that people post links to all kinds of things that are funny, informative and useful.

It's definitely worth exploring. Try it by following a few MNetters - have a look at the people they're following and follow some of them as well.

I'm on there as @TheRealBIWI - you'll see loads of MNetters in my followers that you'll recognise!

YANBU it's crap! Been on it for a year, still can't see the point!

That's a good point Sterryerroh, how do you know that it's the famous person on the end of your "tweet" (clearly just making up the lingo as I go along now)
and not a team of bored assistants hired to shell out bog standard replies?

Mowiol-
You are old fashioned

YANBU - I don't get it either. Blogs I gt - you can say stuff - ie write proper, though out entries givin gyour views or opinions on life the universe and everything or writing a diary which can be good reading - peeking into someone elses life can be fascinating. But Tweets? How can you say anything meaningful in 140 characters?

It works well so long as you follow people you find interesting.

For example I follow:

Friends from a tv fandom I was involved with
People I work with
TV writers/producers
TV critics
The odd celeb/actor
Occasionally interesting randoms I found on twitter

If I chat randomly about my son, those with kids tend to respond. If I'm watching the X Factor, chances are a load of others will be watching it too and it's fun to get a running commentary on it and contribute too. If I want to know what Shonda Rhimes plans for Grey's Anatomy or what Hart Hanson plans for Bones, I can find out directly from them. Some people, like Misha Collins from Supernatural, or the guy who plays Darren in Hollyoaks, just make me laugh with their absurd posts.

On Facebook I'm 'friends' with most people I've ever known who now have a presence online.

On Twitter I generally only follow people who say things I want to read. Even if they do sometimes just talk about what they're having for lunch.

It's also brilliant during live events, e.g. during the world cup or the election, when loads of people are tweeting about the same thing.

To put a different spin on it...

I'm a teacher of Modern Languages. I'm particularly interested in how using modern technology in the classroom can keep pupils motivated and focused. I follow about 100 other teachers (of many subjects) on Twitter - most of whom are also interested in using ICT in the classroom - and they follow me. I find a resource online, a website (bubbl.us, for example) that I think would be REALLY useful to use in the classroom and I post about it on Twitter. I've instantly shared that resource with 100 other teachers. They then re-tweet what I've posted, and the resource I've found is the distributed to another 10,000 teachers (give or take a few thousand!)... and vice versa.

I don't use Twitter to follow celebs - as I have no interest in that - and I do have a few friends on there (who I'm friends with on FB, so I don't really follow them on Twitter to the same extent), but really I use it to improve my teaching practice.

Bellagio - I?m always ever so slightly sceptical that it?s the real person. Although, in this case I think it was, as it was also linked from the Facebook site (which IS the real person) and they?re not that famous a band! Haha. I doubt I?ll be on again any time soon?.

Thanks BIWI, fortunate hamster and Backward possum, you've explained some aspects really well. I hadn't even considered it's use for the workplace.
I guess in general it's just another means by which to share knowledge/information and this could be either trivial, life-changing or anywhere in between depending on what's posted.
Maybe, just maybe, I might be seeing the point of it.

Also, for celebrities, you'll see that some of them have some kind of a tick by their name, telling you that their Twitter account is genuine.

Bellagio - I am old-fashioned and proud of it!! - but I stop short of brining back hanging
I'm a Luddite in many ways - I have not received a letter (other than oficial ones) for many a year
I used to be a receiver and writer of many a letter and I kinda miss those days!!

YANBU - I joined it a while back purely to see the fiasco that TheRealDavidTennant had created (can't remember whether it was SDTG on here or who it was) - she started an MN thread about it and was quite worried that she might get sued by either the BBC or David Tennant but it all worked out in the end. However, I just did not "get" the whole point of it - especially when you can only see one side of a conversation, I mean wtf is the point of that??? and I kept getting all these people following me (same name on there as here) when I'd never posted a single thing. Haven't been on it in over a year and I disabled the notifications when people started following me so I have no idea how many of them there are now.

Me too Mowiol, me too....

Methinks we may be kindred spirits Bellagio
.