Twitter is much maligned and for many still a mystery yet for many it has been to focal point of professional learning. For me Twitter is still the first program that I load up each day and the second last one I shut down at the end of each day, (the reason for this is that if I close my browser down before Twitter, invariably I will receive a tweet that contains a link that needs investigating).
My Twitter browsing habits are also still evolving. As I follow more folk I tend to rely more on the avatars to indicate which tweets rate more highly than others. When pressed for time I also value tweets with links more highly than others that don’t contain additional information. Where there is an ongoing conversation I appreciate the capability to use the “see more of this conversation” option within Tweetdeck. I’m also relying more on searching within and creating search term columns both short and long term.
Brian Sollis provides a range of graphs and statistics that looks at how Twitter is evolving. How are you using Twitter or if you’re not then why aren’t you?
2010 will be forever commemorated as the year Twitter matured from a cool but undecided teenager into a more confident and assertive young adult. While there’s still much room to mature and develop, Twitter’s new direction is crystallizing. With a new look, Dick Costolo as the new CEO, and an oversold new advertising platform, Twitter is growing into something not yet fully identifiable, but formidable nonetheless.
At a minimum, Twitter is an extension of each one of us. It feeds our senses and amplifies our voice. We’re connecting to one another through shared experiences creating a hybrid social network and information exchange tied by emotion and interest. While Twitter provides the technology foundation, it is we who make Twitter so unique and consequential by simply being human and sharing what we see, feel, and think – in Twitter time. It’s both a gift and a harbinger of enlightenment. As new media philosopher, and good friend, Stowe Boyd once said, “It’s our dancing that makes the house rock, not the planks and pipes. It is us that makes Twitter alive, not the code.”
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