Microblogging

What is microblogging?

Well, it's like blogging, but...smaller. Actually, Twitter has become the paragon of microblogging, so it's a good place to start. The basic idea is that you get 140 characters to tell your Twitter friends (a.k.a. tweeps) "what you're doing", and in turn you get a stream of their messages about what they're doing. You can update and read messages (a.k.a. tweets) from your phone, from the web, or from a downloaded client like twhirl, TweetDeck, or Twitterrific, to name just a few.

Still confused? Here is a good, brief Common Craft explanation of Twitter:

Also, here is a good newbie's guide.
There are quite a few famous folks on Twitter, including Stephen Fry, Britney Spears, Ashton Kutcher. Oh, and the President of the United States of America. And Jessamyn West! Twitter is also being used by companies and organizations (including libraries!) to broadcast snippets of info to their customers, users, and members.

Okay, honestly, Twitter is more fun if your friends are on it, though you can still use it for other purposes. You can search Twitter for "hash tags" (such as #conversants) to keep track of events (even library events!). There's also Twitter for mindfulness, weightloss, money management, problem-solving.

Long story short, Twitter is worth a whirl. People may find microblogging to be pure vanity and fluff, or even morally dangerous (!!!) but it is becoming a forum and tool for real conversation.