17. Microblogging with Twitter

I have read about Twitter and have come to the conclusion that it's really not for me. It's more suited to extrovert people I think and for people who don't mind sharing their thoughts and feelings with lots of other people. I can't help thinking that the people who came up with the idea did so as some elaborate joke,
(the Oxford English dictionary definition of to twitter is:"to talk rapidly in a nervous or trivial way.") Then, surprisingly enough, it caught on!

I've seen that Twitter is being used by politicians and celebrities. Much as I like Stephen Fry, I can't help thinking, after reading some of his recent tweets, that he is on one big ego trip, trying to see how many followers he can get.
Twitter can be compared to the mobile phone, a facility which can be useful, time saving, sometimes life saving! but which is so often misused and is therefore time wasting.Here I'd like to quote something very pertinent which I read but am now unable to locate in order to cite the name of the author: "In fact, a recent study at King's College, London found that emailing and text messaging (two interruption-driven tasks) may lower your IQ by ten points over the course of a day. Assuming that you never turn Twitter off, its IQ-destroying potential is absolutely terrifying. "
I'm not sure that it would work as a fruitful means of communication between library staff members,although I'm sure it would be popular on a personal level. However, Nana has suggested that it would be a very useful tool for the Art library to communicate with colleagues in the same field and if used on the basis of sharing knowledge with other professionals or bringing them up to date with recent developments then I am in favour of Twitter.
Therefore, just like the mobile phone, Twitter can be a useful tool and, if adopted as a means of communication within an organization will probably be ultimately indispensable, if it is used responsibly.