What your favourite Web sites say about you

By Rory Reid on 10 September 2007, 5:27pm

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TWITTER
What's the story?
Twitter is a social-networking site that allows users to micro-blog -- a form of blogging where each update is less than 140 characters in length. It began as a research and development project inside Odeo Inc, which is responsible for the Odeo podcast recording and sharing application.

Twitter is widely recognised as the first site that allowed users to send short updates to friends via SMS, instant messenger, email or from the Web -- the aim being to communicate exactly what you're doing or feeling at any given moment.

Relatively little is known about its founders, Noah Glass and Jack Dorsey, except for a well-documented appearance at the South by Southwest Web Award ceremony. Dorsey gave a playful acceptance speech, which went as follows: "We'd like to thank you in 140 characters or less. And we just did!"

Did you know?
US presidential candidate Barack Obama has a Twitter page, on which you can find out exactly what he's doing at any given moment. At the time of writing he was enjoying an ice cream social with residents of Sunapee, New Hampshire. How he has time to run his election campaign with all that Twittering, we have no idea.

What Twitter says about you
If you've ever been friends with somebody that has a constant compulsion to talk, you're probably familiar with the average Twitter user. Whereas typical bloggers communicate their views every day or two, Twitterers insist on relaying every waking moment of their life. It doesn't matter if they're eating a cheese and pickle sandwich, using the toilet or contemplating whether to install Linux on their iPods, the Twitter user will let you know about it.

Most normal human beings would find it difficult to communicate their thoughts on such a regular basis. They'd also be driven slowly insane dealing with constant updates from friends documenting the mundane. But not Twitter users. They get a release with every 140-character micro-blog. To them, the world is a better place now everyone knows they're slightly hungry.

The average Twitter user is likely to have low self-esteem and feel insecure. They counter these feelings by reaching out to everyone they know, and creating situations where they can be the centre of attention. Twitter users are probably a danger to themselves and to society.