Will tweeting replace blogging?

If you haven’t yet found Twitter, then you are missing out on the new phenomenon — “Micro-blogging”.  To get an idea, head over to Twitter and set up an account, or if you feel shy, visit my twitter page at www.twitter.com/GenPlus and you’ll be able to see the mini-posts that are turning the internet on its head…once again.  Twitter is based on a very simple concept.  You have 140 characters to tell the world what you are doing.  You can update as often as you like and as you get into this world, you’ll start “following” people, and people will start “following” you.  Simply because one of you said something kind of interesting…in 140 characters or less.    Some view the concept as narcissistic, which it kind of is…and others are just enamored with creating social connections with virtual strangers at a very fast and broad pace.

The easiest comparison is to look at the difference between text messaging and emailing.  In an email, you can go on and on, with as much detail as you like.  Whoever you email, will read your note, at their leisure, and if they have something to say back, will email you.  Simple.

Text messaging is an abbreviated and very immediate form or electronic messaging.  You typically have about 160 characters to send a message.  Which means the more said with fewer characters, the better.  That’s why you’ll see acronyms for just about everything, such as: 

• LOL — Laugh Out Loud. 
• 2moro — tomorrow.
• Ty — thank you.
• BFF — best friends forever
• cu l8r — see you later

and on and on.  You can get very creative. 

So, now, at Twitter, blogging gets 140 characters.  That translates to about 2 sentences to grab someone’s attention.  And the more creative the better.  Instead of saying something like “Gave up the dessert.  Just gotta lose some weight.”, you might say “Decadent chocolate cheesecake almost passed lips.  But I’ve gotta get into size 10 by Friday…so just said NO to heaven.”

That description might cause someone else to take a second look and decide they needed to comment back to your micro-post or even head over to take a look at your blog.   Personally, I’m nosy and I just love peeping into other people’s lives…which Twitter lets me do so well.  There are even awards for best tweeters.  It is a bit odd, when you first head over, but you’ll find it a lot of fun once you figure out how to play!