<RANT>
Social media is really a time waster - my advice: avoid it if you can! I particularly loathe the abbreviated form of tweets…I do not like having to chop important information into N character soundbites. Faffing about with shortening links to real information etc. Frankly, everyone seems to think they are terribly important and that people will just *want* to know what they are getting up to. Lovingly related in 40 characters or less . I'd far rather read an interesting blog (although most are just self-congratulatory rambling nonsense - more people pushing their data onto an already congested internet) than indulge in twitter(ing). I think the word Twit is appropriate.
We all did fine without Twitter, FB etc - now suddenly they are indispensable …. sorry, I don't buy it. And the venture capitalists who funded these ides - for no philanthropic reason - have become fabulously wealthy off people's perceived need. Entire industries have sprung up in their wake - sensing money! Data mining/analytics for Twitter feeds etc. *everything* is purely about making someone (not you!) rich - and all you have to do is convince enough people they really need it. And, it turns out, people are really easy to manipulate...and so it goes.
</RANT>
