Some of my non-Twitter friends are incredulous at my use of Twitter. I thought I’d better explain.
I don’t think Twitter is anything like blogging (or microblogging). I don’t think of it as IM, although you sometimes get into IM-ish exchanges. What does it do?
Well, there have been a couple of interesting spontaneous group pub trips, although how spontaneous I don’t know because people go to the pub on a Friday night anyway. What I have found is that I’ve got a sense of getting to know people—people who I meet from time to time anyway but don’t normally get any kind of extended involvement with (weak ties, Tipping Point fans). And I’m enjoying that a great deal. This familiarization is almost certainly an illusion to some degree, because meatspace is so important for really getting to know someone. Perhaps it’s just another social lubrication. Like beer.