Twitter tweet

I’m having Twitter issues.
Namely, I can’t figure out what in the world Twitter is.
I have heard the term Twitter used on occasion, but just assumed it was something that I could continue to ignore and be fine, much like oil changes for my car.
Then I learned you could Twitter the Aiken Standard website. Or it was being Twittered. Or something involving Twittering, whatever that is.
Following the links, I was escorted to a page where I could sign up for Twitter. After entering a few fields I was signed up. For something I don’t understand. And can’t figure out how to use. Yea, me!
I asked several people to explain Twitter. No one could do it. I was directed to a “Daily Show” segment on it, which was funny, but still shed no actual light. So I went to the one source for accurate information on internet issues: Wikipedia.
The beauty of Wikipedia is that it is correct because it was put on the Internet by someone who claims to have knowledge of something. Good enough for me.
So Wikipedia says this of Twitter:
Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.
So there you go. It is an avenue for me to say things. Short things. How long is 140 characters you ask? Exactly this many, as I determined by typing it into the Twitter site, which counts down the number of characters you have left to post:
Exactly how many characters are made up in a 140-character post on Twitter? The answer may surprise you. Also, my Master Card number is 3340
Oooh. So close.
So basically Twitter is currently a character countdown machine. I type, and a little “140” on the screen counts down as long as I type. I suspect there is more intended by this.
Apparently, there are “followings” and “followers” on Twitter. I think I am supposed to follow the Twitterings of other people, and they are encouraged to follow me. I am a rather self-involved person, so I think I will focus more along the follower route.
But alas, how do you find people to Twitter with? Supposedly there are millions of people using Twitter. Surely I will know some of them, right? After all, my entire high school is on Facebook, which I still barely understand, so this can’t be too different, right?
Shocker – I found no one. I even went to the part of their site where they will automatically search your e-mail address book to see if any of your contacts are on Twitter. And I willingly entered in my e-mail address and password and sat there dumbly as it searched.
I think it’s a brilliant idea just to randomly go entering your e-mail passwords on websites. After all, I use the high-tech security program known as “hoping for the best.”
I later received a rather exasperated tutorial from a couple of newsroom Twitter experts. They explained to me that it could give me a constant news feed, from any site I choose, be it aikenstandard.com or cnn.com or espn.com or ... well, you get the picture. From any Twitter-friendly site.
“Can’t I just go to those sites?” I asked.
Based on the sighs and shaking of the heads, that is not the point. The point is...something. I think that it’s a NEW way to get an aggregation of news fed onto my computer screen (and apparently my phone, should I so choose).
If you care to see how it plays out, follow along with my tweets (look for StandardMike) and find out just how exciting my day can be. I plan to log a solid day of tweets today. I know you can’t wait to experience it. I look forward to your thoughts about it. All 140 characters of them.