And why to Tweet?

Most of us are on Facebook. Most of us update our status regularly. Some of us do it to present a funny line, some to follow others who are writing about recent topics (like all those Rajnikanth jokes), some to tell others that "This is what i am doing right now, and i would just like to make you feel bad" (Like, I am in LA and going to have this weekend party in Vegas, I am sipping a Margarita on a weekday, I got this, I got that... Also, i love animals and help me protect them while i go hunt for my Gucci leather handbags).

And then there are some who update status messages more than once a day, hoping to elicit some response, hoping to hit certain spots. There are also some highly cryptic updates and you expect to stir some kinda of responses... And this is where Twitter can help you.

Twitter, mind you, is not a Social Networking website. It is a Social Broadcasting platform, a much over-used term for it being 'micro-blogging'. Here, loads of people throng, follow you, respond to you, put you on lists, black-lists, make fun of you, join you in making fun of others and beyond all this, converse with you. Unknown folks, hiding behind a handle and a DP. That is the amazing part of Twitter.

On Twitter, you can say anything and everything that you want (No holds barred till a point though!), crack all sorts of jokes and keep mum. If someone likes it they will respond. There is no 'like' button, mind you, that will feed your ego. There are different set of comments. You can take your rants to Twitter instead of FB! (Rant less though because people still read!)

Once you form a small community (metaphorically speaking) on Twitter, you would know what it is all about. You associate handles with people. Ok, @so and so is a pun master, @so and so cracks very good jokes about current affairs, @so and so gets me the latest news (not breaking news mind you) even before they hit the newspapers! and so on! It is fun, entertaining and addictive at first and later fizzes out to a controllable degree.

It is very good if you follow the right people, and not just follow pretty people!

Well then what was the point of this post? Excitement that my Tweet got published on the second last page of the oh so widely read Pune Mirror? (I bet hardly few go beyond Watsa's column!) Angst about people updating their status often on Facebook? Confess that i am pretty much addicted to both Facebook and Twitter?

No. I just wanted to tell folks to try Twitter. At first, read what people write. Then write. Then you are on your own!