Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Twitter, micro-blogging, etc.

Yeah, I could have written about Day 4 of my DST fitness plan, but let's be honest-- it gets old real quick and no one cares about my workout routine THAT much.

Let's talk about twitter instead. I don't really *get* twitter. I know lots of people use it, and I use it myself half-heartedly. But I don't understand the widespread appeal of it.

I mean, I remember reading just a few short years ago a parody of a blogger who obsessively blogged every little detail of his life.

9:53 AM

Lost my pencil.

9:55 AM

Found my pencil.

10:02 AM

I sneezed.

We used to ridicule people who had blogs like that, you know? Now, it seems as if Twitter and other microblogging platforms are "social networking" tools. For instance, I can say "going to open mic night at Firehouse Grill in Fairfax"-- and everyone who follows my twitter feed will see where I'm headed and has the option of joining me there. (Yes, this assumes that I actually have people who follow my Twitter feed and that they are local, but you get the idea.)

When did "microblogging" suddenly grow up and become the cool kid on the block? Where are the people who once mocked microblogging now? Has their opinion changed any in light of recent events?

And, most importantly, will I ever find a way to add comments or trackbacks to my blog in a way that doesn't create invalid HTML?