From the beginning, Twitter has had me somewhat befuddled. The 140 character limit seemed – well, limiting. I have settled into checking my feed a couple of times a day and I do pick up some useful links in this fashion.
The new “lists” feature sounded interesting and I immediately created a list, but again I was uncertain what to do next. TechCrunch explains a use of lists that would seem to have some potential. Generate a list likely to offer useful information and use the activity as a feed within another application. For demonstration purposes, I have inserted the feed from my “ParticipatoryWeb” list here. It would be more useful in the sidebar, but you get the idea.
Previously, I indicated that had decided to use this blog for longer and more serious posts and my group microblog for anything else. This post is an exception. I am testing a plugin that automatically sends a tweet to my Twitter followers when I post something here.
I have been working on some material on group microblogging to add to my participatory web for learning site. I have been developing some content describing educational uses of Twitter and have been thinking about how people seem to react to Twitter. I am easily distracted and instead of finishing the material on Twitter, I decided to develop a developmental stage theory of Twitter users.
I discuss developmental stage theories in my work as a psychologist and while a little bit of a stretch perhaps some of the assumptions of stage theories apply to Twitter users. A major assumption proposes that not all individuals go through all stages and not at the same speed, but all individuals go through stages in the same order.
I do not know if the following diagram is self-explanatory or not, but it proposes three stages, it outlines the the realizations that allow some users to progress to the next stage, and the perspectives that encourages others to quit the Twitter community all together.
So, I welcome you to test this model against your own experiences. If you have tried Twitter, which stage did you achieve?
BTW – the need a better tool links should probably be differentiated – I need a better tool vs. We need a better tool
P.S. – I noticed something interesting after I added this post to my blog. When you examine any single post on this blog, a plugin I have added to WordPress identifies what “it” thinks are similar posts I have generated on the same topic. In the case of this post, it generates earlier posts on Twitter. You can kind of see my own attitude change as I collect experiences with Twitter. Cool.
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So, I welcome you to test this model against your own experiences. If you have tried Twitter, which stage did you achieve?
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