Practical uses of Twitter: is it the right tool for the job? Feb14 '08

Twitter has it's practical uses, and it's social network uses. A good article from the New York Times focuses on a practical, real world use for Twitter - keeping in touch with family members.

... I thought Twitter would be perfect for my purposes. The service allows users to text a message of up to 140 characters to an unlimited number of people simultaneously, from anywhere. Anytime.

In theory, the five members of my immediate family could use our cellphones to broadcast our locations, kind of like a G.P.S. with words.

Sounds like a great use of Twitter, but for reasons unclear, Twitter has a very slow adoption rate amongst certain demographics.

These criticisms confounded me. I thought it would have been a cinch to get my wired family twittering like parakeets. After all, my daughters are "supercommunicators," ... because every day they interact with friends through multiple channels of communication - including cellphones, text messages, instant messages, e-mail and face-to-face conversations.

The article goes on to explain that a possible reason for the restraint, is that Twitter could be perceived as surveillance:

"But their perception is it's surveillance." One of the main reasons people embrace social media - Facebook, for instance - is to create identities for themselves and control other people's perceptions of them.

Perhaps, in this case, Twitter is simply not the right tool for the job.

I, for one, would love it if my own family used Twitter to keep everyone abreast to their where-abouts and even what they're thinking. I think we'd all be a little closer and more aware of each other's lives.

It's all about using the technology that's available, which makes your life easier, and keeps you more informed.

For example:

For practical purposes, Twitter has a lot of advantages.

Categories: Family , Lifestyle , Technology , Twitter

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Matt, I definitely agree with you here. Practically, there are several great reasons for families to use Twitter. And certainly there are similar r ... Read more.

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