Yowza! How did this happen? Unless you’re pre SDMB pals, can our Clark Kent ids be discovered? Even the mods don’t know what we look like. (I hope).
Someone hosts a SDMB Member photo album somewhere. I’m sorry I forget the details of who, but you can send him a photo and he’ll add it to the site.
Surely someone less exhausted than me can remember the URL…
It’s stickied in MPSIMS.
I’m 33, and I’ve been through the BBS era, FidoNet, then Usenet, etc.
I’ve read this whole thread, and still don’t understand the point. I don’t really care about an actor’s opinion about anything except acting. I have no interest in where a basketball player is eating lunch. I shop where I shop whether there are sales or not… and if I gotta watch a Twitter feed because the shop changes location every day, I’ll shop somewhere that doesn’t move instead. I’ve yet to experience any news that had any immediate first-person impact that it couldn’t have waited until the 10 o’clock news. 9/11? Challenger explosion? Princess Di? Michael Jackson? My day didn’t change for any of those, and learning about one 20 minutes earlier than my coworkers wouldn’t be any different than learning about it 20 minutes late.
Yeah, what is so important about getting a bit of news a few minutes before everyone else? I’m talking bout a regular office worker at his desk, not someone participating in a public demonstration who actually can use immediate information.
That’s probably something that can’t be explained. I can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want to know as much news as possible and watch it unfold as it happens if they can. The office worker at his desk probably isn’t going to use the news at all, since it won’t have any bearing on his life no matter when he hears it, but most people aren’t going to say “Why is the news reporting that MJ died? What does that have to do with me?” So most people want to know these kinds of things and some of those people want to know now, if possible.
For someone trying to set their fantasy football lineup on a Sunday afternoon, having an instant feed of a handful of injury experts, fantasy experts and sports journalists is a huge edge over checking espn.com. That’s a pretty specific example, but it works for me.
Also, as previously mentioned, it’s a forum for journalists to expound more fully on their work, provide follow-up that their media website may not provide, and it gives you access to them in a near-instantaneous manner (because many of the good journalists who properly use Twitter are quick to respond, while they mostly ignore e-mail). Of course, I mentioned this earlier, so feel free to ignore it again.
You want to know things now that you don’t know have happened? I follow the news more than most people, I think. Indeed, I’m in the news business. But I don’t feel the need to be exposed to news every waking hour of the day. In fact, I think that kind of existence would be somewhat intolerable. So, yeah, I’m interested in knowing about Michael Jackson’s death. When I heard about it, I mentioned it to the next five people I encountered. But it doesn’t bother me in the least that I learned about it at 9:05 when NPR started its hourly news roundup, rather than at 8:47 when someone first tweeted it. Why should I reorder my life and become a slave to Twitter just to close that gap?
You shouldn’t. But if you have specific areas of interest that you find difficult to find news about, then Twitter is the perfect solution. Celebrity breakfast updates and funny man one-liners are merely the sideshow, which you don’t need to subscribe to whatsoever.
Okay, you guys have convinced me to pay more attention to Twitter. 
Things that interest me happen every day. I don’t have to know exactly what happened to know that something happened, just like the guy who can’t get the news until 11 knows something happened that makes it worth turning on the TV. Yes, I’d like to know about the things that interest me as soon as I can.
It’s not all or nothing. I don’t have the time to follow twitter 24/7, but taking in 20% of the day’s twitter feed puts me in a better position than not reading any of it. It’s also very convenient because the links and stories and comments come to me, all neatly consolidated in one place. As a result, that’s less time that I have to spend going to a bunch of different websites. There’s a vast middle ground between chaining yourself to twitter and not using it at all.
Not me, honestly. But I’ve been known to take very deliberate “News Vacations” when my anxiety level gets too high. I’m quite happy when I can make it through the whole month of July without hearing a single piece of news other than what’s for breakfast at the campsite next door or what time the bonfire will be lit.
But to each their own, of course. I’m very glad y’all have your Twitter technology, since it does seem to offer some things I hadn’t considered. Thanks for the information!
I joined Twitter last year, but haven’t used it a whole lot, I guess because I haven’t figured everything out on it. Maybe I could use it better if someone could answer these questions:
[ol]
[li]How do you organize who you follow? I follow some celebrities, some friends, some local businesses, and some other people. I think I tried using HootSuite to try making different groups, but it wasn’t working for me. I think I would use Twitter a little more if I could get it more organized.[/li][li]How’s the best way to find followers? I was trying to find more Houston related people and more art related stuff, but was having trouble finding good stuff. I know that there are millions of people that tweet and there’s good ones that would be relevant to me, but it’s been hard for me to find amongst the chaff. So how do you find what’s relevant to you without wasting hours sifting through the irrelevant tweets?[/li][/ol]
- You could use the list function to sort the people you’re following into groups.
FWIW I just use it to follow a few pundits who interest me and also to monitor saved searches like “Breaking” (news) and “Iran” to see if we are at war yet.