[xenoterracide]

I personally don't think you should. I myself find 'social networking' to be a large waste of time.

people like to play silly games, and change things like mood, or the music they are playing.

the social notice I want? was the phone call I got a 7am a few weeks ago a friend telling me her fiance and my former room-mate had died.

or how about a text saying, "wanna meet for lunch?"

I haven't used twitter, but the whole social thing seems a waste of time. I have better things to be doing, like building a business, or school, or finding a job to help me pay the bills in the mean time.

[calvin]

I've found Twitter to be a great aid to me w/ networking. For the most part, I add people I try to add people I meet at business networking events. I've gotten to know several people in the Seattle startup scene by going to real networking events and then continuing to follow up and build the relationships through Twitter.

Speaking of lunch, I've used it for that as well. Once your friends start using Twitter enough, it's easy to shoot them a message and ask if they want to grab lunch especially if they're in the same area.

[xenoterracide]

see this is part of the problem with social networking.

'once your friends start using twitter enough'

it's proprietary and unstandardized, unlike email or phone numbers where it doesn't matter as much what network you are on, you can still make and receive messages. (I know cells are very proprietary, but you can still get calls right?).

[witten]

> it's proprietary and unstandardized, unlike email or phone numbers where it doesn't matter as much what network you are on, you can still make and receive messages.

That's the thing that bugs me about Twitter.. It's essentially just another walled garden. But that aside, maybe the model is cool, and a good way to follow friends and acquaintances. So is anyone creating open/unwalled pub-sub software that anyone can use on any server for a similar purpose?

[cocoy]

i share your distaste for social networking. i hardly check my facebook, just once every couple of weeks. there are just too many people blasting you some game or stuff like that. boring.

but w/twitter... it was different. after you get past certain barriers, it becomes a conversation.

some people use the sms function to blast all their friends "wanna meet for lunch". hey, if you only need to send once, right and pay once?

there are business leaders on twitter and some really smart people. think of twitter as a party that goes on 24/7. you get interesting conversation.

sometimes, some people come in and shouts out that they're on ustream, and hey a couple of people slip out to go to that room. while everyone else keeps the conversation going.

sometimes, you get the really breaking news. other times, you get good links to interesting stuff.

there are times, you just listen in on a conversation between two twitters and you learn stuff.

how do you keep up? you don't. you don't need to keep up. you can miss stuff and that's ok. i use growl on the mac to give me a heads up when someone twitters. that way, i don't have to actually be directly engaged. just think of it as background conversation in the office. And of course you can really turn it off.

just my two cents.