Twitter or not?

I joined Twitter a couple of years ago and could not make head nor tail of how to use it. And the first person to contact me was an active lesbian who frightened me to death! So I never use it now, sadly, as it quite appeals to me really.
(not that I am prejudiced, you understand, just that she was a bit .... er... overly friendly!)

Just block people like that, henetha, if they make you feel uneasy. Use the wheel thingy on their profile page.

Twitter is very adjustable to be how you want it, not perfect by any means, but you can avoid most stuff that annoys or disturbs you quite easily.

I don't think it's important to be connected unless you have a book to sell or something like that. Most of the people I follow and who follow me just do it for fun as far as I can tell.

I'd say I'm a minimal twitter user that feeds my interests. It can be fun and thought provoking. For instance, I follow a photographer/journo in Ukraine. I just happen to like his work and humour.
#twitterlite

Not for me , its a time waster but then so is FB but at least I know my friends and family there and their lives are connected to mine. I don't have time to follow people I don't know or are just there for celebrity reasons.

Had a peek once a while ago. henetha I was totally befuddled too.

I cant make head nor tail of it either.
And the 140 bit was awful.
I like to write essays about things!

You do get instant news.
But if I am out for 2 hours, that makes no difference.
If it is big news, we will all hear about it quite soon.

My problem is I do not have a great deal of interests. So following people or pastimes doesnt appeal much.
Nice pictures on there though.

I do have a Twitter account and tweets keep popping up in my emails, but I've no idea how to tweet - or why I'd ever want to.

I don't feel the need to be connected to Twitter or Facebook.

Oh good.

I don't do Twitter or Facebook and have no interest in either. I can probably waste time in more fruitful ways !

Believe it or not, I follow a lot of political websites. They often have twitter feeds down the right hand side. I looked at one just now, and there was only one original tweet. All the rest were retweeting the original one. As tiggy said, I can waste time much more easily than having to sort out tweets.

I joined Twitter when we were all desperately worried about Greatnan. Since that sad time I've followed various Tweeters, among them a lot of very local bloggers who write entertainingly about the immediate area, (most Tweets are very short and simply link to longer articles) a few quirky posters - a chap who posts pictures of gates for example, a few friends, some political sites and some religious and theological ones too. I also follow TfL for information and one or two journalists who write about matters of concern to me. It's amazing what interesting texts one discovers, but all too easy to spend too much time on there

Perhaps I should have another look then. But how do you actually Tweet? What's all the # business?

I think that, when we were searching for Carol, the whole of social media came onto its own!

You just adapt each medium to your own needs, that's all. And for someone who is over verbose, Twitter is a good discipline.

You can retweet by pressing the retweet icon, you can reply to a tweet by clicking on the reply icon and you can send a direct message to someone you follow.

There is an icon like a quill pen which you click on if you want to compose a tweet. You are limited to a certain number of characters but you can link to very long texts. If you read a newspaper on line for example, there will be the Twitter symbol at the end and you just press on that to Tweet the link.

Or you can compose a deep and meaningful thought of your own and add a picture if you wish.

The # simply directs a Tweet to a certain subject or issue that is of interest at the moment. So, for example if you Tweet #grammar or #floods that tweet will go to that account and be read by those who are interested as well as your own followers.

Followers grow slowly, usually when someone picks up one of your tweets and decides to follow you.

It's all the retweets that can be a pain. You can choose who you follow, but you can't choose how many retweets they put out. There can be an awful lot to wade through.

It's also wonderful for getting a swift response to poor service. If you Tweet #Barclays for example, if you re dived poor service from them, they respond much quicker than they would otherwise because it's in the public domain.

Capability Brown's real Christian name was Lancelot.

I learned that on Twitter a minute ago.

See. It is worth it.

And I know someone who has just completed her very first loom bracelt. And it's very pretty.

#wishicoulddothat