Someone please explain twitter to me... lol

[karrie91]

Long story short.. I like posting my thoughts and little updates through out the day. But I don't like going to facebook because coworkers, and family and such are there. I'm kind of wanting a place I can do this while keeping up to date with current events and what not of things I like.

I hear twitter is popular for this?

Can someone explain how to use it and how it's like and not like facebook... I feel kind of stupid lol 

[Maniah]

Twitter is for watching what movie stars say. It's also great for advertising.. As in.. You will have a bunch of people follow you, attempting to sell you stuff. They don't care what you have to say.

In my experience, it was a waste of time. But a lot of people love it, so what do I know, eh?

[Beldarna]

It was fun in the beginning. I used to follow my favorite authors, but with all the ads and sellstalk, it lost its appeal to me.

[Rosencrantz]

I like to describe Tumblr as Twitter for pictures, so I guess Twitter is Tumblr for words? I follow a lot of my friends, some news savvy people I've met (and that terrifying time when my Egyptian friend was in the protests and describing things like being shot at D: but boy howdy was I up to date on what was going on in Egypt) and some parody accounts, some official accounts (The Onion, Shirtpunch), some authors I like (Webcartoonists David Willis, Kate Beaton, Ryan North), and generally I've always got something to read.

Mostly I use it to share my late night arguments about why Professor Xavier is only harming the mutant movement, write about how my hamster icon died and is now a ghost for halloween, and pictures I've found. And to talk with my friends.

Oh! Don't worry too much about spamming people following you if you're talking to someone, if they don't also follow that person, your tweets won't show up on their feed.

It's NOT like facebook in that your feed is linear, no posts zooming up and down, you can 'retweet' things (a bit like sharing on facebook, except unless the account is protected you can retweet anything), there's no games, no privacy violation scandals yet, and it's much less complicated to work.

As well, not like facebook you can't 'hide' posts you dislike, so sometimes in the end you just gotta unfollow someone.

Like facebook, you can post quick thoughts, see other peoples thoughts, and 'favourite' tweets if you don't want to share them, but want to show you liked them. Or want them for later!

[starrypawz]

Twitter, it's for sharing short, sharp updates really. It's good for following celebrities or brands as they often have an account, and for tidbits of news but it's not that interesting.
I keep an account, follow some people and linked my blogs up to it so I can tell people when I update but that's it.

[kaoskat]

Can't help. I don't use Twitter.

[Sarahlacewing]

So do you just post what you do, like all the time? Or is it more like facebook where you post interesting things or like where you are so your friends can find you?

I also don't understand Twitter very well.

[Rosencrantz]

So do you just post what you do, like all the time? Or is it more like facebook where you post interesting things or like where you are so your friends can find you?

I also don't understand Twitter very well.

You post what you want. Some people only post jokes, some people post just life updates, some people post cryptic threats, some people post about their projects, some people do all that and more.

However, gonna say it's not a good idea to post where you are, as popular as 4square is, unless your account is locked.

[Eviecorn]

Twitter can be what you want it to be ... I use it to follow people whose thoughts I enjoy hearing, like certain authors, comedians, and people like George Takei and Stephen Fry.  I'm also a person of very random thoughts, so 140 characters is a good limit for me. 

[stopxmotion]

Twitter first started out as a place to give a short answer to the question - "What are you doing?" It even said that right where you would type a new tweet.
It has now evolved a bit to just posting any random things, and you can post pictures as well. It's a neat way to keep people updated about what's happening in your life, and a lot less complicated than facebook.

It's not really for watching celebrities. I mean you can, since a lot of them have accounts, but that's not it's purpose. Also, I've been using twitter for 5 years and while I have a few spam/advertising accounts follow me, they aren't so annoying as to turn me off to the site. When they tweet me I just ignore them. It only happens like once a month maybe. You can block someone if they are really bugging you too.

Find a few friends and family members to get started, and then follow some other folks you find interesting. If you ONLY follow celebrities I can understand not seeing the appeal. I like to watch people who post neat things about their lives, not the ones who only retweet stuff or have posts linked from other places like "I just favorite a video on youtube!" 20 times in a row.

[StoryDreamer]

Twitter is great for conversations, especially if you have a passion. Like I love writing and young adult literature, and they have weekly chats about YA and kidlit and all kinds of things.  You can follow along by watching a hashtag (tweets tagged with #). You can discuss tv shows by following hashtags, or meet people who are interested in the same things you are...including ponies!  I love Twitter.  It's not just tweeting your current activities, though that is encouraged!    So you could follow Brandon Mull (https://twitter.com/brandonmull) or Harry Potter fans, people who like Monster High, etc  (going off your sig!)