Why A Normal Person Should Use Twitter

Twitter has been the subject of a LOT of tech talk. It results in three different camps of people: (1) people who get it and participate, (2) people who tried it and found it stupid, (3) people who don’t even try it.

In our recent reader survey here at PCMech, we had some interesting results…

54% of our readers find Twitter to be a boring subject
10% of respondents didn’t even know what Twitter was
35% thought it was stupid and would rather just tinker with their computer
13% thought these kinds of things were just for uber nerds.

One thing is clear. Twitter might be coming into the mainstream on the Internet, but it has a long way to do. The audience of PCMech is probably far more representative of the general computer user than a lot of technology-oriented sites on the Internet. If our audience is largely not involved with Twitter and just don’t get it, you can count on the fact that most Internet users are in the same boat.

This puts me, as an early adopter, into an interesting position. I tend to jump onto things WAY before the majority of my PCMech audience. I enjoy it and it is my job. But, should I continue to just talk about the things my audience is used to, or should I introduce and, yes, drag you into some of the newer technologies taking place online?

It is easy to throw Twitter into that category of nerdy, Myspac-y things some nerds do. It is easy to see it as a waste of time. My response would be to not be so fast at dismissing it. As a person who follows technology, the worse thing you can do is dismiss things by thinking you already know what it’s all about. That is an easy sentence to falling behind the curve.

So, given that we have a lot of “normal” people reading PCMech, I thought I would list some reasons why a normal person might want to consider using Twitter.

You can use it to create interesting contacts and spark interesting conversations. And, yes, Twitter is used for conversation all the time. It is not a one-way flow and if you think it is, it is because you are not using it correct. Check out PCMech’s Twitter user manual for more on how to use Twitter properly.
You can build your network. Why would you want to do that? Because, in the future (and now, for that matter), your network is going to be your security. Imagine losing your job right now. If you have a large network of contacts, don’t you think you’re going to have a much higher likelihood of crossing paths with somebody who might be hiring?
You can tap into knowledge. You might like the anonymity of just Googling for what you need to know. And, yes, much of the time that is the best way. But, real people are the best resource. The power of many minds often beats out the power of one. When you follow the right people on Twitter, you can learn information you wouldn’t have learned otherwise. Not only that, by following that person you now have a way to directly contact that person – over Twitter.
Real-time information. Twitter is perhaps one of the most “right now” social media sites on the Internet. It is commonplace to find out about news on Twitter way before you’d see it elsewhere. Not only that, you can ask your Twitter network a question and many times get answers back within a few minutes.
Expand your horizons. Keep in mind, our computers are supposed to be TOOLS to help you improve your life. You didn’t buy a computer so that you could experience the joy of repairing it, did you? Likely not. If your computer doesn’t help you connect to people and do things, what good is it?

In my position as a tech blogger, I consider it one of my jobs to enlighten others on the opportunities the world of technology presents. I know that many of my readers are not entirely in tune with what is happening out there. And, honestly, the forward movement in the general world of technology is happening OUTSIDE our computers. Yes, Twitter is a social media site. Yes, Twitter can be used as a time waster and can suck attention. But, it is also a resource and a good one. I would never have started using it if it was a waste of my time.

If you should sign up for Twitter, realize that you will only get out of it what you put into it. If you don’t regularly submit anything and don’t follow anybody, Twitter is going to seem incredibly stupid. You have to participate in it and then, trust me, it becomes a LOT more interesting.

And, yes, should you choose to start using Twitter, I invite you to follow me at www.twitter.com/davidrisley. Not only will you get notice of all new content here at PCMech, but you’ll get a lot of random musings from me throughout the day.

[Image from PC Weenies. Funny web comic...go check it out]

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http://aravindjose.com/blog/ Aravind Jose T.
Well said, Dave.
To those you condemn/or doesnt care about Twitter, there are missing something very great .
http://www.perkster.net perkster
isn’t this like the third such article on this same subject? I think by now people have either tried and liked it or have decided they don’t want to try it. I am in the latter.
wlbrantley
Although I’ve been a user of this site for many years, I’m at the point of hitting the delete key over this Twitter hustle. I’m subscribe to the newsletter and use the site because I want computer knowledge,period.Not to be harsh, but I don’t give a rat’s ass about your or anyone else’s musings. Bloggers are under the misconception that they have something important to say, and everyone else wants to hear it. I’m convinced the only people who read these inane blogs, are people who have inane blogs of their own. I’m afraid it’s not your audience who doesn’t “get” Twitter, but you are losing touch with your base.
David Risley
To wlbrantley and perkster:
Here’s a hint. Back button is on the top left. Back out of the article and choose another one to read. There are over 3,600 articles on this site. If 3 are about Twitter, I think you’ll live.
PCMech is a GENERAL tech blog. Well, Twitter is part of the landscape, like it or not. As I said in my post, part of my job is to drag people forward. If you expect PCMech to talk about CPUs and motherboards all day, then you’ve got the wrong site. Sure, we’ll talk hardware. But, we’re also going to talk about what you do with that hardware.
Unless you bought a computer just so you can sit and tweak it all day. I highly doubt it.
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http://www.perkster.net perkster
I think it isn’t as black and white as those who are into twitter are going forward with technology and those who have no interest in it are old guard. I do like hardware and building computers but I also like technology in general using my computer to do great things as efficiently as possible. I like to learn about the new developments and websites and tools available and have them demonstrated from excellent sites such as this. I even use facebook, myspace and RSS so I am not stuck in the old ages. However with twitter I find personally having looked at it somewhat it is simply a mixture between the status update on facebook/ mood on myspace and an RSS feed, only showing you new content on your tracked sites and telling you minute mundane details about peoples lives whom you will never meet while sharing your mundane day stuff along with the occasional clever musing. I would argue that perhaps people who use twitter a lot are wasting their lives reading and writing about life rather than living it and to some it is a definite distraction from actually using their computer for something productive. Again I reiterate this is not against you or your twitter blog or this site but the issue raised in general.
I believe you are right to write about twitter give an introduction to what it is, its uses and let your audience who wants to check it out, I would even say you can then go on and reference to it occasionally within other content but you run a risk of becoming the car salesman trying to sell a car too hard. With regular similar posts as to why you personally love twitter and its benefits to you and your website it could be taken as ramming it down peoples throats. I think most tech-heads are generally inquisitive by nature so after your first post on twitter they had a pretty good idea what its about and probably went there to take a look and decide for themselves. Not everyone will like it or have use for it, that doesn’t mean they are falling behind with technology.
i think you are right to talk about social media and trends of technology, but try not to focus on any one service too much and try to sell it to your audience too hard. I truly believe the best articles on this site are the daily tips which offer good advice to do something more efficiently or a new website or tool that may be of use to someone. I like the editorials too to keep up on news trends and where tech is going but I don’t think twitter is the be all and end all of future technology. I do not see the benefit to myself personally of reading what other people are thinking or doing 24/7, I don’t mind reading big updates on facebook status which is updated less often in general and usually a brief summary of their day or major events in one sentence but an hour by hour account of someone’s trip to the shops for example I can do without and as for the links to new content I can get that from all my favourite sites by RSS and newsletters anyway.
Liking twitter is not a prerequisite of moving forward with technology, there are many other directions and things happening in tech of much greater significance, most of which im pleased to say get good coverage here at PC Mech. Keep up the good work.
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k
When someone in business you don’t know invites you to join them on twitter, how do you politely decline?
There doesn’t seem to be any mechanism to do so other than ignore the request (not good for business) and since their full name isn’t shown, I don’t know how to find the person, otherwise. I would hate to have to sign up for twitter just to say I don’t want to be on it.
I have to keep updated in too many networks to add another constant interruption especially when I’m in deep research mode. Linkedin is much more effective for my business needs.
http://twitter.com/steve_eky Steve
I’ve been using Twitter since Dec 08 but seriously using it for a couple months or so. Other than just being interesting to use for me personally, there is so much potential in the search features with people posting links and key words in their tweets. One thing that I hate though is “business” users (individuals I mean) such as realtors among others, delivering an almost constant stream of tweets. It’s obnoxious and sure will get a quick “unfollow” from me. These types using Twitter sparingly to get an interest from people and cause them to want to check out their website link for more detailed info is what their purpose should be, at least in my opinion.