What are you doing? The nation begins a new trend, Twitter, enabling members to keep up with friends staus'

By:Tom Mitsos

Edited By: Martinez Scott

What are you doing?

I’m twittering because it seems to be the next big social network phenomenon. First it was MySpace, then Facebook and now Twitter.

Found out Twitter began in March 2006 as a side project from a podcasting service called Odeo. Thanks to PBS for information.

In March 2007, at the South by Southwest interactive, film and music festival, Twitter won the Web award in the blog category.

It’s hard trying to keep each entry to 140 characters or less. Mary Pritchard, Grand Valley State University classmate, said it helps her…

become a better writer.

“It’s helping me become a more refined journalist,” she said. “I
only get so
many words.”

I had to split up the last two updates, 140 characters is not enough. I’ll attempt to keep my following updates under the limit.

I heard about Twitter in my writing capstone class at GVSU. The idea of constant updates seemed very stupid to me.

Idea seemed very pretentious to me. I decided to give Twitter a fair chance. Signed up for Twitter account. It took about two minutes.

Twitter is going through my e-mail account to find friends that are already on Twitter. It found my writing professor, I request to follow…

her. Ugh! I did it again. This will be the last time I go over my limit, I promise. If the limit were 160 characters, I would be happy.

So, what do I do now? Looking around the Web site to find what else I can do on Twitter. Can’t find anything. There has to be something else

Did you notice there wasn’t a period at the end of the last update? The update would have gone over 140 characters had I inserted a period.

Continuing to look around the Twitter site. Found director/writer Kevin Smith’s Twitter. Decided to follow it. Smith’s updates include:

“Finally cleaning my office. Why do I bother keeping anything? When I'm dead, it’ll probably all just get thrown out.”

And: “Can't sleep. Losing at Full Tilt.” I didn’t know Smith was a poker player. Speaking of which, I also found Phil Hellmuth’s Twitter.

Hellmuth is a professional poker player. Updates include: “I’m down 33k!!” and “Has a new YouTube channel.” I need to see his YT channel.

I’m enjoying learning about Smith and Hellmuth’s personal life. It seems to humanize them. As if celebrities were not human to begin with.

Pritchard agrees: “It gives them (celebrities) the opportunity to say things without going through the media.”

Twidiot? Ashton Kutcher is just one of the many celebrities you can follow on Twitter. (Courtesy of GeorgianSouthern.edu )
She is following Fall Out Boy Bassist Pete Wentz’s Twitter. She likes seeing his personal thoughts.

However, many celebrities have Twitter accounts, and they don’t even know it. Actress Tina Fey is just one of these celebrities.

According to gawker.com, Fey’s Twitter is not written by the former Saturday Night Live star and current star of the TV show “30 Rock.”

Pritchard doesn’t like the impersonators. “It pisses me off,” she said. “That’s stupid.” While it may be for fun, sometimes it’s malicious.

Kate Betka, student at Michigan State University, is using Twitter to get news from CNN Correspondent Rick Sanchez and the New York Times.

She said she has no friends that use Twitter, so she is only using it to get news updates. National Public Radio also has Twitter updates.

I found out that it’s not just celebrities, college kids and news organizations using Twitter. Politicians are using it too.

According to Oregon Live, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., Twittered 22 times during President Obama’s speech in February.

I never would have thought Congressmen would be using Twitter. What is this world coming to? Do they have MySpace and Facebook accounts too?

Betka thinks Twitter is just a fad. Unless better features are added, she said Twitter will fade away.

Final verdict: I enjoy checking on celebrities’ Twitters, but unless more friends get a Twitter account, I’ll stick with Facebook.

See? I kept my promise. I didn’t break the 140-character mark again. Now back to writing as many characters as I want.

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Here are a few celebrity and news Twitters:

Phil Hellmuth: http://twitter.com/phil_hellmuth
Kevin Smith: http://twitter.com/ThatKevinSmith
Jimmy Fallon: http://twitter.com/jimmyfallon
Rainn Wilson: http://twitter.com/rainnwilson
CNN: http://twitter.com/cnnbrk
Rick Sanchez: http://twitter.com/ricksanchezcnn
New York Times: http://twitter.com/nytimes
NPR: http://twitter.com/nprpolitics
Earl Blumenauer: http://twitter.com/repblumenauer

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Twitter Fun Fact: Ashton Kutchor recently challenge CNN news to a popularity contest. The celebrity and the news outlet are racing to see who can generate 1 million followers on the micro-blogging site. Read about it here. Watch Ashton challenge CNN here.