Dumb question time. Tell me about Twitter

[proud2BlibKansan]

I signed up and I have a bunch of people following me I don't know. And I haven't even sent out any tweets yet. (Because I am having a stupid attack and can't figure out how to send a tweet.) There is also the matter of not knowing what to say in my tweet.

It just seems pretty odd.

When I got on Facebook, within a month or so I had hundreds of friends and it was so overwhelming I started deleting Facebook emails without even checking them. (But there is still one girl who sends me some silly Facebook thing every day, and I don't even know her. Which leads to a second question. How the hell do you unfriend a 'friend' on facebook? LOL)

So tell me about Twitter. What's the big idea?

And should I sign up for text alerts on my phone or will that overwhelm my text limit?

Thanks.

[kas125]

1. I have no clue about twitter, but to delete a friend on FB,

just go to your friend list and on the right there's a little x next to each person. Click that x to remove someone. And you BETTER NOT remove me!!

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. LOL It's not you; I have absolutely no idea who this woman is

But I do know she seems to live on FB.

[kas125]

10. I have a few of those, too. I SWORE when I started on FaceBook

that I wasn't going to add anyone that I don't really know. Now I have tons of facebook friends and I have no clue who they are; they send me friend requests and I see that they have thirteen or twenty friends in common with me and I add them because they asked me to.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. Same here

My niece found me on FB and we found a bunch of other family members so we decided to start a family group. Then this guy none of us knew joined our group! Turns out he was looking for his birth mom who had our last name. We all told him we didn't think he was related to us and thought he would go away. But he didn't. He was commenting on our family pics and leaving us messages. And the family was peeved at me because he had been one of MY friends. And of course I didn't have any idea who he was since I have 700 FB friends. LOL

This went on for a few weeks and then I got an email from some girl who said she was his girlfriend and she wanted me to sign a petition because he had been kicked off FB. Gee, hard to tell why! LOL

Too bizarre.

I haven't heard from my niece for awhile so I guess she is still mad at me for bringing this weird guy into our family group.

[kas125]

16. Yeah, but then every once in a while someone finds me

on FB and I'm thrilled. The other day I got a friend request from Ben Marble, the "go fuck yourself, Mr. Cheney" guy. I'd emailed him after he did that just to say thank you for doing what so many of us wish we could do. So, ya never know who's gonna turn up there...

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. I am going to friend him

701

LOL

[Rhiannon12866]

2. Bookmarking. You're ahead of me. I still don't understand exactly WTF Twitter IS...

Jon Stewart started to explain it, so I paid close attention, but he had nothing... :shrug: :kick:

[napi21]

3. I'm with you on both Twitter & FaceBook. I signed up for FB

because an old friend sent me an invitation, , but I never use it other than to read her posts. I checked Twitter out when there was such a big deal in the media and damn near every cable show host has a Twitter link, but it sounds pretty stupid to me. I'll be watching to see the responses you get.

[JPettus]

20. I'm very similar about facebook

Got an account at the request of a friend but not really interested in social networking sites. Then my daughter, who is also on FB, sent me friend requests and poked me. Then her friends who had known us in Germany sent friend requests and we exchanged notes and caught each other up, then old friends from college contacted me with friend requests and I went from 1 friend to 28 nearly overnight. I was able to contact a college friend's old fraternity buddies to notify them when he passed away, I get short blurbs from my daughter when she gets time.

I guess it's a bit like why I liked email over letters. When I wrote a letter, it was for one person, it generally would be for a page or more and I wouldn't know when they got the letter and read it, but I could send a short email to multiple people at once and update them on what I was doing.

FB (and I supposed, Twitter) allow you to put out a short broadcast to everyone you are friends with or who are subscribed to you in a few seconds and it's a way for people to keep in touch.

Though, I have to say, I'm a bit amused at what some people choose to post to everyone who is their friend on FB.

[Alamuti Lotus]

4. a scaled down email clone for the ADD narcissists

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. LOL!

Seems about right.

[Pirate Smile]

7. Who you choose to follow, not who is following you, determines if you get anything out of it.

I posted this on a thread last week (I think) just to explain how it can be useful to some people.

"It is like a permanent open thread and you pick whose comments you want to see. Comments you want
to see can include a ton of websites which post the headlines and links whenever they add a new story or thread.

You get Breaking News from a variety of sources you choose as soon as they get posted - NYT, MSNBC, The Hill, WSJ, Marketwatch, Think Progress, Media Matters, etc. AND posts telling you when blogs you like post a new story or thread - The Daily Dish, Daily Kos, AmericaBlog, Wonkette, Swampland, etc.

You can also talk to reporters - ask questions, complain, point out information you think they aren't aware of, etc - along with find out what they are doing on their shows, who they'll have on, etc.

You can also respond to politicians like Claire McCaskill, Grassley, etc.

There are also people - like on DU - who post while watching the same shows, who have similar POV - bitch about Tweety, or laugh hysterically at Anna Marie Cox and Maddow on Rachel's show re Teabaggin. Anna Marie Cox posts on Twitter all the time so you know when she is going to be on the show and what the topic is, along with assorted green room, press availability gossipy stuff (she loves Orszag). People on Twitter become like friends on DU sharing what is going on, what is cracking them up and pissing them off, etc. The chatter by the Democrats and Dem bloggers on the tea bag crap has been quite entertaining, ACORN is also the root of all evil.

That is my quick synopsis of its appeal. It takes a little while to figure it out and it all depends on who you choose to "follow".'

Also, you don't have to post (or tweet) anything at all or anything about what you are doing."

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. Great info

Thanks!

What I don't get is why people want to follow ME. Do some people just do that for all the new Twitter signups? Seriously, I am not an important person at all so why do I have all these Twitter followers?

[Pirate Smile]

9. I guess. I don't really know why they would.

[MadLabrador]

11. It's a cross between instant messaging and blogging

I love it; it categorizes all the voices I want to hear in the world. I wish someone would start a Twitter thread here at DU so we could share usernames. Follow me @waynefrommadlab

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. Okay I am now following you

I don't know about a DU Twitter thread. Some people use their real names on Twitter but wouldn't want to post them here.

[BlooInBloo]

12. Do you have unlimited texting plan?

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. 200 a month

And I use maybe 2 every month. Not a big texter.

[BlooInBloo]

17. Hm. Then if you follow big bloggers, you'll definitely go over if you have em texted to phone.

[Oregone]

18. Its a sickness actually

Its a human version of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy