But my mother used to always ask me when I left the house, "Where are you going and can you leave a phone number?" She then would wait up for me to come home (usually at some ridiculous hour of the night) and ask me what I did, who I was with, what I ate, and a myriad of other well-meaning but often annoying questions. She would knock on my door when it was closed and ask me "what are you doing?" She still calls me every Sunday night, with similar queries about my activities.
Twitter (which I discovered via Howard Greenstein at Podcamp NYC) is an updated version of my mother's system. It enables friends, wanna-be friends, acquaintances, and loved ones to share the answer to the simple question, "What are you doing right now?" I've been a member of the "Twitterati" for about a week now, and the jury's still out. Unlike my mother's interrogations, Twitter does enable you to easily decide when and what you want to share. It can be as intrusive as you allow it to be. It's somewhat addictive. I don't really care what my new "friends" eat for breakfast, yet I find myself reading...and twittering back with my own mundane activities.
Is this all just a manifestation of the overpowering human need to connect? Is it a form of voyeurism? Or is my mother REALLY the force behind Twitter?
Do you Twitter? Why?
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