You have to keep an eye on the computer nerds. One day they're abuzz about some new Internet widget — something with a funny name and indistinct purpose — and the next thing you know, everybody bar nobody (except you) is using it. They're kind of like college kids that way.
So here's an early warning: Something new is brewing amongst the nerds. The next new thing is called Twitter , and for once in this Web 2.0 world, its name is both correctly spelled and apt: It exists to fill the ether with an endless chirping.
Twitter lets you post public updates about your status; it presents a simple page with a text box, that asks "What are you doing?" The catch is that you're only allowed an answer that's 140 characters long — but you can post as many updates about your day as you like.
Judging from the postings from around the world that are continually updated on the Twitter website, that's more or less what they get — and by the thousands. Here are three updates that popped up from random Twitter users (Twitterers?) in the last few minutes: "Done with grading! Time for a break!"
"Very, VERY pleased with how Apple and UPS handled this."
"Twitter won't let me post Pi to the first 140 characters. What's up with that?"
Taken out of context, it seems like a never-ending flow of disjointed banality. But when you start following your friends' postings, then the picture starts to resolve itself into, well, a never-ending flow of perfectly linear banality. And, needless to say, the idea here is to coerce all of your friends into using Twitter, too.
And if there's a draw, this is it: After building up a list of buddies who also use Twitter (Twerps?) you'll be notified every time one of your friends posts an update.
Breaking news about your friend's choice of lunch meat will reach you either on the Twitter website, via a standalone program that sits on your desktop, by e-mail, by having messages sent to your instant messaging program, or even text-messaged to your cellphone.
Currently, there's no option that will have someone knock on your front door, slap you in the face, and yell the update at you, but wait for it.
It's not all about celebrating the workaday. Clever monkeys that they are, people are putting Twitter to better uses, like sharing practical status updates with a group of co-workers, or by directing their postings to specific Twitter users (Twits?), leading to a kind of public conversation.
Looking at the flow of postings on Twitter.com, it seems especially popular amongst the web-savvy early adopters, the ones whose Twitter updates indicate they're always trying to get some gadget or another working. Big names like Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales have signed up, as well as John Edwards, the U.S. presidential candidate who — in fairness — never saw an online fad he didn't like.
If all this sounds a tad redundant, that's because it is. The concept of one-line broadcasts will be immediately familiar to anyone who's spent time on instant messaging programs like Microsoft Messenger, which bring up contact lists full of friends' names.
Even though the point of instant messaging is to have online chats, users quickly realized that, simply by changing their names, they could broadcast announcements to their friends with no further interaction required.
(Occasionally this would cause problems, like trying to guess which one of your friends had changed their name to "Golden Girls marathon tonight!" Microsoft eventually added a feature that allowed for status messages without changing names; nobody should have more than one friend who enjoys Golden Girls, at any rate.)
Short, frequent updates are also a staple of Facebook, the up-and-coming social networking site. Facebook encourages users to publicize their state of mind by completing a sentence that begins with "I am . . ." Every time a Facebook user makes an update, it's broadcast to all of the friends on his buddy list.
To be sure, it's hard not to look at Twitter and see a stripped-down Facebook; with its friend-lists and messaging functions, it's a social network in its own right. But Facebook, MySpace, and their ilk specialize in being all-consuming. They're private networks that do their best to suck you in and keep you occupied within their walls, demanding personal details and bombarding you with reports about your friends.
Twitter, on the other hand, might be persistent in delivering its updates, but otherwise, it keeps to itself. It does one thing, and does it well.
Its brand of micro-blogging hits a sweet spot: it has the shout-it-to-the-world appeal of blogging, but without the strenuous effort of ideas and paragraphs. It has the immediacy of instant messaging, but carries no obligation of getting embroiled in an actual conversation.
It's the ultimate in relaxed communication: little farts of consciousness, unpackaged and unaddressed, sent out into the void without the pretension of being of any interest to anyone. It has its appeal, and soon, everybody and their dog (except, possibly, you and your dog) will be on it. Brace yourself.
