The Good and Ugly of Twitter

Ever since hearing about Twitter this past fall, I've always wondered why people are so drawn to it. What is the purpose? Do people really want to hear that I ate a Twix bar and some Cheetos today?

A couple weeks ago, the Editor-in-chief of The Collegian began Twittering Students' Association meetings. To me, that was really cool because those of us in the newsroom could receive live updates about the meeting.

Apparently, another good use is asking people for a cure for something. Exhibit 1: David Pogue of the New York Times was showing off Twitter at a conference and decided to do a live demonstration. He said he needed a cure for hiccups and viola, dozens of random people responded with their own personal cures. Sweet!
(Click here for Pogue's full article about the incident and some fall out responses when he told the Twitterers that he asked that question as part of a demonstration.)

So there are some good uses for Twitter, but there are definitely some weird ideas tied to the medium. Prime example: George Stephanopoulos is going to "twitterview" Sen. John McCain. That's right. Stephanopoulos is going to ask McCain the tough questions about these trying times in 140 characters or less. Nothing like limiting the word count while trying to solve the country's (oh sorry, to cut out that last word, I ran out of characters!)

So for me, the live updates and twittering of meetings is the future of news outlets on Twitter. The "twitterview" ... yeah, not so much.