What's the Big Deal With Twitter?

For the last few months, I've been staying on the sidelines regarding Twitter much in the same way I stood on the sidelines for a year or so when blogging was suddenly taking the nation and the world by storm. "Nah, I'd never get into blogging," I said. "Who cares about what I think about anything? It's a fad and it'll burn out."

Well, about 2000 posts later, I think that notion's been thoroughly disabused.

But Twitter's something else. It seems that after being hot for about a month or so, the novelty of "microblogging" through 140 or less character messages called "tweets" is wearing off. In fact, a recent study found that only 10% of all Twitter users generate 90% of the content (and knowing the prolific Karl Rove, he probably generates over half of that). This would seem to suggest that, like blogging, a large percentage of that remaining 90% are either already losing interest in tweeting or have abandoned the idea altogether.

Oddly enough, the study showed that both men and women are more likely to follow male Twitter accounts, which, while it may be in keeping with the largely monosyllabic half of the species, seems odd considering there's really no way to ascertain or prove gender in a 140 character or less tweet.

Myself, even though I never had a Twitter account and don't plan on starting one, I've read enough about it to suspect that it's really nothing more than electronic graffiti only easier to remove than spray can paint or scratches in a toilet stall. It's text messaging for the masses, since the threshhold is 140 characters, or what you can send in a standard text message.

But, obviously, I've been wrong before. Witness my attitude 5 years ago about political blogging.

So if I opened up a Twitter account, would anyone be interested in what I'd have to say on the fly?