Twitter. Is. The. Best.
I remember reading articles when it first came out, about how pointless it is. 140 characters, posted in real-time. Why? What for? How does that change anything? Critics said it was a fad and people are still waiting to see how Twitter is going to make money. I say to them, “Who cares?!”. Sometimes, the economics of something isn’t always so clear in the beginning and that’s OK.
It’s poetry for geeks! It’s real-time, raw, mind share. A giant nucleus of a billion thoughts and voices, all speaking at once about nothing and everything that matters. It’s fresher than news, blogs, TV! It’s free from bureaucracy, censorship, subscriptions. It gives power to all the little and big guys and enables conversation that would never have been possible before on any other platform. It’s my favourite.
A few nights ago, I decided to stay in on a Saturday night that was supposed to be jam packed with social events. I was tired, sluggish and couldn’t find the motivation to drive into the city. The Manny Pacquiao fight was on HBO but I hadn’t made plans to watch it live from home. I wanted an update – who was winning and in what round. I searched Google News, blogs, Yahoo, Bing for anything, anything that would give me some indication of how he was doing. Nada! Not blogs, nor “live” news, nor sports websites could give me a smidgen of information.
So, I searched on Twitter.
Fourth round, Manny doing great. And oh, here’s a link to a live stream. Go watch it. For free. And oh, here are the celebrations happening in the Philippines. And here is a blow by blow account from a fan in the stadium.
Wow. USEFUL. Talk about value-added. Talk about real-time useful content! So much better than TSN or News or any other source that touts “live, exclusive, updates” and “real time” whatevers. So many people and organizations over promise and under deliver. How about not promising anything at all and just letting people contribute good, useful information, without making them jump hoops to do it.
I <3 Twitter. I know Deepak Chopra’s thoughts of the day. I can track Paolo Coelho as he writes his new book. Brooke Burke tweets her workout schedule and my uncle in Calgary is just about to get his oil changed. Personal. Real. Unedited. Is there anything on the web more genuine?!
And oh, I really really love the little bird logo. Tweet, tweet!
