A Grand Experiment

I am conducting a grand experiment. I am trying to understand Twitter.

I first joined Twitter a couple of years ago when I was told it was going to be the 'next big thing'. I joined and sat there waiting for something to happen. It didn't, so I didn't bother with it. I re-engaged a few months ago to follow the doings of people like Amanda Palmer (of course) but didn't really do anything else. Then, last weekend, I decided I ought to either get with the programme or give it up as a bad job. So I've started twitting or tweeting or whatever and have sent more tweets onto the vast online space in the past few days than I have in the past two years.

I just don't *get* it. So, by trying to actively engage with the thing, I'm hoping to understand how different people use it, what they get out of it and what the benefits are. I've been doing it for a few days so far and it still makes no sense to me but I will persevere. I'm brave like that, y'see.

So, if you use Twitter, please get in touch and help me understand the thing.



I've made my life more complicated by setting up a new 'work' account. A lot of the excellent services I work with, like Netmums and DadTalk have active Twitter feeds so I've joined those in my 'work persona' (I keep work online separate from 'me' online to avoid any blurring of the boundaries). That means I have two feeds to check and contribute to - but it also means that I see a different side to Twitter than if I was solely 'me' (if you see what I mean).

I doubt I'll get a thesis out of this experiment, but I might get another blog. Let's see what happens.