Twitter – A New New Thing

What is up with Twitter being the new new thing? Actually, it is not new. It has been around since its development in 2006. What makes Twitter stand out from the rest is its’ pure simplicity. All you have to do is pick up your cell phone for a SMS text, go to a website, or use a third party API to twitter away. From the time you text (up to 140 character is allowed) and send, all of your friends know where you are or what you are up to. How awesome is that? Simple and practical for our everyday busy lives.

You are wondering what is up with Twitter gaining a foothold in the Deaf community? The answer to that is, communication and information. The Deaf community is thirsty for communication from anyone, anywhere, and no matter how they get it. Having communication and information enables one to stay ahead of the pack. A competition of knowing at it’s finest…what is embarassing is when someone comes to you and say, “Have you heard about the earthquake in Italy?” (Pardon the satire)

I do not have to type much information about Twitter because it takes one to try it and realize its’ full potentinal. You would realize how much closer you are with your friends once you use Twitter and you would allow yourself to maintain updates on your blog, facebook, and myspace. Talk about sitting in your car and you decide to have a say about something. You type on your cell phone and Twitter away, everyone on facebook, myspace, blog, etc would automatically know what is up with you all the while you are sitting in your car.

Currently, there are many competitors out there that would compete to grab market share away from Twitter. Competitors such as Friendfeed, Tumblr, Posterous, etc. You can check them out and use any to your preference. All of them will still connect to twitter and use twitter as a platform to connect to your friends. It seems that now every website, rss feed, email, and post are all now connecting to Twitter. Let’s just say, Twitter is the information gateway to the world.Let’s look at different third party API that enables you to use Twitter to post up to 140 characters each. You can just go ahead and do a google search for Twitter 3rd party and there are plenty to come up with.

Here is what I use and I believe is the winner, however, you are free to disagree. For the Desktop or Laptop user, I use TweetDeck because it works on all platforms across Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. Basically, it use a platform called Adobe Air and you would need to download Adobe Air to be able to use TweetDeck. For the power social users, you can use Digsby or Nomee (it is a new player in town).

I have a Blackberry and I use this nifty appliction called TinyTwitter. My wife has a iPhone and she use Twitteriffic (free version).

We are Twitter addicts… are you?

Catch me at Bporche (Twitter)

About Bradley Porche

Bradley Porche is a High School Teacher for the Deaf at Clear Creek ISD. He is also a professor at Houston Community College and a Deaf Activist. You can see his website at http://porchedaily.typepad.com/porche-daily/ or follow him on Twitter @porcheb .

7 responses to “Twitter – A New New Thing”

  1. sassyredjulz says:

    Not even gonna allow myself get hooked to Twitter. Facebook, myspace, and Xanga was hard enough to wean off! I had to wean off FB and MS so I could focus better on graduate school and work. It has made a world of difference already. My work productivity has increased as well. If I didn’t have such a high demanding job and wasn’t in school, sure, I’d tweet all day long. 🙂

    However, the idea of everyone knowing your thoughts every minute of the day does not appeal to me anymore especially when crime is spiking up. When the times are bad especially during the economy, the crime rate goes up. You just don’t want to take that kind of risk and allow criminals to track you down.

  2. Billy Koch says:

    Good point but you know when it comes to jobs and etc its all who you know and social networking is taking up by a storm. It is replacing Monster.com, Careerbuilder, and a few to name. As posted on Business week http://www.businessweek.com/technology/technology_at_work/archives/2009/03/hunting_for_job.html Social networking is replacing those job boards. Now keep an eye on the job boards they will start finding a way to integrate social networking into their job sites. Honestly, I have kinda of blown away Facebook – I have become less and less a FB fan but more of a Twitter fanatic. Because all those apps that people add, install and etc. I dont need those – if I have questions or just want to say something – I just TWITTER it!

  3. Try http://www.ping.fm

    It can do most of the job for you with few click including twitter….

  4. sassyredjulz says:

    Yes it’s becoming a tool for job networking, but it’s also allowing your employer access to what you’re saying through out the day. Like that employer who got fired by Philadelphia Eagles for making a comment about them letting go of one of their star players. I sure would be careful about what I say during work hours if I was a Twitter user. Employers are indeed monitoring their employees’ activities online. Just use common sense to what you say online.

  5. bporche says:

    Good comment of what I have read so far. I understand the concern of having people knowing what you are up to or etc. However, with any social sites you have the power to control how your information is being revealed. Take Twitter for example, there are two basic types of control – Public or Private. Public – you allow everyone to view your updates or Private – you decide on who wants to follow you. Simple as that. Then there are sub level of control…you can block that person or click “follow” which means you allow that person to respond to your Tweets and open the communication between you and that person.

    It is true that you have to watch what you say and how much information you want to reveal is entirely on your own on how much risk you are willing to take. 🙂 Good point there.

  6. bporche says:

    I forgot to mention this…more and more companies are using Twitter as a customer service contact. For example, there is @bank_of_america or @dishnetwork and one time I was having problems with my Dish Tv and I decided to twitter @dishnetwork. This person replied back to me and said to call this number AND extension! It went straight to that person, no waiting! I was like, “Wow, that is customer service!” Within minutes we solved the problem which was a power surge protector inteferring with the cable line… I know, I know…stupid me. 🙂

    Just search for your service provider on Twitter search or go to wefollow.com

  7. Sam the Deaf says:

    I use Twitter for my blog to encourage to have people find me. It’s one of good tool to get attention. However for make keyword on Twitter whatever people are look for. I have make the suggest to search #imdeaf instead #deaf. Why? From what I seen that “deaf” on search doesn’t make us find only for deaf and hard of hearing. For example, someone saying, I’m being tone deaf blah blah. It’s not right subject what they’re look for. That was my suggest I blog some time ago. Cheer.
    http://illustrator.blog-alloon.com/archives/809

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