Micro-blogging has come of age, especially to update people about circumstances. Today's rains in Mumbai were a 'trending topic' in Twitter. Called '#mumbairains'
People began updating or rather "tweeting" their status since morning, and some people like me who were at home were the media centres collating info from across the web, the TV and updates from friends and family over the phone... It was fun! and helpful...
Although there are spammers who take advantage of the fact that it's a trending topic and post spam messages about their products and their events or their websites. Another thing called as retweeting which I think is mainly to reiterate a particular post so that more people across the networks get the updates. Some people were also indulging in jokes and fooling around, which was quite irritating and irresponsible. Someone began to spread some nonsense about a typhoon alert in Vashi and when lots of people began to question his source, he threw his hands in the air and said, "Chill guys, it was a joke!" Now, that's not funny!!
But what I wonder is, I mean while this is great service, how will micro-blogging ever become something that's sustainable on a regular day? I mean, what and why should I regularly tweet when nothing special / unusual has occurred. The challenge for the Twitter people is to find something to bridge this gap. Make micro-blogging into an activity, or add some sort of software whereby this service becomes a habit on a daily, regular basis instead of the emergency-response triggering that it is now.
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