Friday, February 5, 2010

Twit

So I've gone and signed up with Twitter, solely to throw a vote or two in the Shorty Awards for best Twitter feed (I'm hooked on MarsRovers.) I still don't Get It Fully, as the kind of people with which I exchange messages don't have hyper-developed thumbs from life on a smart phone's keypad. I know this has been brought up before within our circle, but being neither a celebrity in need of ego boosting nor a robotic probe in need of Congressional funding, I don't see what normal mortals use the service for.

It's been pointed out that once upon a time, in select parts of the world, mail service was far more frequent than today, providing an analog (or analogue) for email. I refuse to believe this is like tweeting -- mail is a personal one-to-one correspondence with no length limits, Twitter is a simulcast of tiny info-bursts, with no clear recipient in mind. I'm just now realizing the brilliance of the service's name, as wandering through the site brings to mind the cacophony of tromping through an exotic bird enclosure, with each brightly-plumed resident trying to out-shout the others in search of a mate. Maybe I'm looking at Twitter all wrong. Maybe I should be using this a a means to disseminate my DNA, if you know what I mean. My wife may take issue, though.

A little quick searching makes it appear that the "hashtag" #typosphere is previously unknown on the service. (A search of #typewriter finds many a keycutter, I don't recommend hunting there if you're squeamish or prone to anger. Sadly, I'm both.) I'm certainly not one to encourage a me-too attitude -- just because I'm jumping off a bridge doesn't mean you should do it -- but if you're already out there in the jungle amid all the other twits, give a shout to #typosphere and maybe we'll all land in the same friendly tree.

5 comments:

deek said...

I've had a twitter account for a year or two. I agree, there's not a whole lot of use for the "common wo/man".

FWIW, you can check me out at #typeclack. I just set that one up tonight, so nothing is tweeted yet.

Strikethru said...

Welcome to the twitisphere, I have been there kind of embarrassingly awhile. I was impressed that you were the first to use the typosphere hashtag-- hoping to see it more on there in the future.

deek said...

I just read up on what a hashtag is...and noticed I used it improperly in my prior comment. Oh well, live and learn!

I noticed that I've seen the spelling two different ways. I thought it was odd when I first became aware or all of this, because I saw it spelled "typeosphere". I always wanted to put an extra syllable in when saying it. But I looked around at all of the community and it seemed to be consistently spelled that way...

Strikethru said...

MPC, is there anyone on twitter from the typosphere I am missing on my list?

http://twitter.com/strikethru/typosphere

mpclemens said...

@Strikthru, I may be the wrong person to ask. I'm still working out the intricacies of the "search" box...

All you typotwitterspheroids, do check in! We'll claw our way up to the top of the hashtag list for sure.