Twitter takes blogging to whole different level

By Abigail Kwok INQUIRER.net ARE you tired of reading lengthy blog entries that speak of philosophical topic s that almost give you a headache? Never fear, Twitterâs here! Twitter is the newest blog site that is uniquely different from its other blog counterparts. The concept of Twitter is micro blogging. That is, you write abou t minute things and details about you or just about anything and everything. Mi cro blogging, in short, allows you to revert to those old school diary entries that go something like,

âDear diary, today I went to school. The teacher gave us a pop quiz. I had lunch at the cafeteria. I went home at 4PM.â

Founded in 2006, Twitter has since gained a huge following, with site visits re aching up to 500,000 in July of this year. You may think this is a step backwards from the modern blogging world as blogs today are a proven worldwide revolution, able to spark change in societies (or even start an argument). In fact, blogs were even viewed as threats by some cou ntries like China, which even banned some of them altogether. But Twitter is actually very helpful for some, as it has been used in emergency situations like the latest California wildfire that occurred just last October . In that incident, Twitter was used by the fire department as their main means of communicating with one another. The concept of Twitter is to answer the basic question, âWhat are you doing?â F rom here you can post anything from your activities to your feelings at that mo ment. The process of posting updates at Twitter is dubbed âTwittering.â A member can twitter away almost every minute if he pleases. Some twitter so fr equently that friends subscribed to his profile were getting annoyed at updates sent through their cellular phones. In fact, The Wall Street Journal reported that topics people twitter about range from their lunch (fried chicken and past a, anyone?) to pet peeves (buses along EDSA). Anyone can twitter using their ce ll phones, so just imagine how many updates you can receive in a day! If youâre familiar with Fri endster and Facebookâ s status update, thatâs exactly how Twitter works. Twitter is also a form of so cial networking, where you can hook up with your friends or build your own netw ork based on common interests. Other features of Twitter include SMS and IM upd ates, so you can update everyone wherever you are. Twitter is a breakthrough, in my opinion. Apart from being very user-friendly a nd easy to navigate, Twitter recognizes the fact that online readers have short attention spans. No matter how great a writer is, people will eventually get b ored reading lengthy articles or anecdotes from him because, a.) Reading from t he computer can give you a nasty headache and blurry vision; and b.) People jus t want to browse and get on with everything else in their lives. And although some may think it shallow to read other peopleâs activities and th oughts, you have to admit that everyoneâs a gossip freak. We all want to know w hatâs happening in other peopleâs lives. After all, we are curious folk. Even t he most mundane things can actually draw our attention. Not only that, you can also meet long lost friends through Twitter. Itâs funny how some people develop closer relationships with the people they interact with in their online network as compared to their social friends and families. Despite of some people getting annoyed at Twitter updates (hey, you can turn of f the notifications!) the blog site continues to gain a massive following. Add to that, most of the members of Twitter admit to the siteâs âaddictingâ factor. Like Friendster and Multiply , Twitter is fast attracting the Filipino online community, so this will de finitely be an addition to those friendsâ updates you receive everyday via e-ma il. Brace yourselves, folks!