OK, so I’m about to eat some Twitter crow. You may recall I called Twitter super dumb in an earlier post [1]. It turns out “thinking Twitter is super dumb” is more of a phase in a long process of eventually becoming addicted to Twitter. It goes something like this:

1. Twitter, what is that? Another web 2.0 waste of time, with no point? Ugh.
2. Maybe I should check out Twitter. Everybody is talking about it.
3. This is Twitter? Who would want to use this? This is dumb.
4. I guess I should sign-up for an account, just to see what it is like. Yep, like I thought. Pretty dumb.
5. Why are people still talking about Twitter? It is so dumb.
6. Somebody just said something funny. I should blog about it. Hmmm, probably not worth a blog post.
7. I can’t believe [insert something crazy] just happened. I’m going to blog about it. Actually, it isn’t worth a blog post.
8. Hey wait, don’t people use Twitter for this?
9. Wow, Quicksilver has Twitter integration. I use Quicksilver all the time.
10. This is a great way to make a lot of snarky comments. What a great outlet!
11. I wish my friends would Twitter.
12. OK. I think I have a Twitter problem…

The point at which I gave Twitter another chance was when I realized how much I enjoyed reading IM status messages. It has become this odd form of communication at work.

In the end, Twitter is like anything else. The quality of Twitter is based on the quality of the people who Twitter. Guns don’t kill people, people kill people and all. I’m not into the “having lunch” kind of Twitter user (reads like “heading into work. working through email. heading out to lunch. Full after lunch, ate too much…). Wow! Boring! But insightful, funny (a.k.a. snarky) comments are fantastic. I think Peter was right here — it is just another way to keep in touch with your friends.

Turns out you can enable Twitter to SMS you with updates from Twitter users marked as friends. That seems a little over the top. While I can see it being useful at a conference or trip to Vegas, I think I’m not ready to be that in touch with my friends on a daily basis. But reading an RSS feed at the end of the day with a bunch of Twitters — that seems reasonable.

This is my Twitter Page, and my Twitter feed.

Other notable people who Twitter: John Edwards, Steven Write, Steven Colbert

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[1] Ken’s comment on my previous post was genius:

Just refilled my coffee.
Wow, it’s warm outside.
Reading Scott’s blog.
Now I’m typing a comment on Scott’s blog.
I wrote “I agree.”