I downloaded my Twitter archive today for my main account @makiwi. In March 2011, I tweeted 7,041 times. Most of that were my desperate efforts to try to keep people updated with news regarding the earthquake coming from Japan. What a crazy, crazy month that was.
But what a year 2011 was.
Where previously, little fragments of ideas may have gradually accumulated, building up to a big idea in the recesses of your mind, participating in Twitter drains away those ideas as soon as they float by. At the end, you are left with an empty void, and a vague feeling that something is missing.
My Twitter experiment is over. It was sort of useful in tracking what I was doing when I was at a computer. It wasn't that good at tracking away from the computer
But I don't think I can continue to use it. It is so distracting, even if I turn off other twitters. But if I turn off other twitters it is just a little black box sitting there and feels lonely. So, I turn on other twitters...and so on and on.
I am one of the fairly large and vocal minority of people who are skeptical about the usefulness of Twitter. I don't see how it's better at communication with people I know than the phone, email, Skype (Skype IM is a very useful tool for people you are frequently on the phone with), IM, IRC channels, snailmail letters, what have you. And I am not that interested in what people I don't know are eating for dinner. Heck I'm not that interested in what people I do know are having for dinner, unless they can write it up and photograph it beautifully and give me the recipes (yay for food blogs).