I've finally found a way to use Twitter that doesn't make me feel self-conscious and boring- I've been retweeting news headlines! I've been trying to do it in a thematic sort of way, choosing news that has to deal with social media, and actually, I've found that the more often I update my status, the more new people I have following me. It's kind of cool.
And yet, I still feel like I'm forcing myself to use Twitter. Microblogging itself isn't that compelling to me, especially when other sites (ex. Facebook) supply newsfeed that has more options. I can see Twitter's uses for citizen journalism or celebrity gossip or gauging general option1, but I'm just not interested in participating. I suspect part of the problem is that almost nobody in my social network is using Twitter. It feels like I'm talking to myself and wasting my time.
And yet... I still haven't figured out what exactly makes Twitter so engaging for other people, but I suspect it has to do with the level of possibility. Unlike Facebook newsfeed, status updates go out to the entire world. Posts are abrupt, but they're also conservatively anonymous and, to some extent, given equal attention. Twitter really could be a manifestation of synchronic social discourse. Which is pretty epic. Who wouldn't want to join in?
1 Ann Coulter was a trending topic for a while in Canada. Some very antagonistic tweets were coming out around whether or not she should speak at the U of Ottawa.
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