To Twitter or not to Twitter...

I actually finished my Twitter experiment about 3 weeks ago. I haven't had a chance to write about it until now. I bet you've all been on pins and needles.

Here's the poop:

Pros:
If you want to really get to know someone and how they really spend their time, this is definitely a good way to do it. If they're faithful to the motto "tweet everything", then you'll be able to enjoy the ins and outs of their lives.

You also have the ability to get the stream of consciousness of large segments of people. Be they friends or your target market. I liken this to the band with a loyal following of fans who might want to see an impromptu performance be it a local club or online web cast.

Cons:
If you don't have a piece of technology that you keep with you all the time, you won't really get the full effect. I found that the mobile interface was great with my smart phone. But my wife pointed out that if you weren't tethered by something that had ready access, you weren't apt to go out of your way to tweet about the minutia.

It's also quite hard to decide whether to tweet before you go do something or after. Is it important to get the play by play or the synopsis of the thing you just did?

There's also the concern about privacy. You have to be careful who's following your tweets. For example you want to tweet that you're going out for the night. If you've left enough info about yourself lying around you may have a complete stranger decide to steal your stuff, because he knows you're gone. (I know a paranoid viewpoint, but stranger things have happened.)

Also, the Twitter web site/backbone seems to get "stuck" sometimes. It seems to get bogged down and unresponsive during peak usage. Only I'm not sure when that is, because it happened sporadically.

In total:
I stopped using Twitter after the experiment, because I ran out of stuff to tweet about. Nobody really wanted to know when I went to the bathroom. However, the things I learned about the people I was following was pretty neat. It was eye opening to see the rhythm of their lives.

I would also like to give special thanks to Brookie & Janae. They were kind enough to test it out with me, and it made it a much more worthwhile experience.