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While many of us have embraced Facebook status updates, blogging, and other social media, microblogging is just beginning to blossom. Twitter is the leader in this trend, allowing users to stay in constant contact with friends and family through a series of short, concise blog posts. The microblogging service, currently celebrating their lack of major outages following Steve Jobs’ keynote yesterday, is gaining more and more media attention and accolades.

Twitter allows users to post text-based stories of up to 140 characters, which are colloquially called “Tweets”. These short blog posts update family and friends as to your daily activities, thoughts, aspirations, and location. As Twitter’s website humorously explains:

• Eating soup? Research shows that moms want to know.
• Running late to a meeting? Your co-workers might find that useful.
• Partying? Your friends may want to join you.

Twitter has been used for everything from inane socializing to major layoffs to notifying family of legal problems. One Twitter addict used the microblogging service for a now famous post: “Arrested”. Grad student and journalist James Karl Buck wrote of his arrest and political plight while covering protests in Egypt. As a recent CNN article explains, “Within seconds, colleagues in the United States and his blogger-friends in Egypt — the same ones who had taught him the tool only a week earlier — were alerted that he was being held.” His quick action, and Twitter’s wide reach, led to his release. Buck is now working to secure the release of his colleague and translator, Mohammed Maree, who was arrested on the same day.

Another Twitter user blogged about his layoff from Yahoo! earlier this year. As Silicon Alley Insider puts it, “Yahoo’s Ryan Kuder was canned today. A drag for him, but a gift for the rest of us–because he Twittered it. A new form of literature is in the making…”. Kuder used the microblogging format to give frequent updates about his last day at the search company. Some excerpts of his writing include:

“Walking around saying good bye to some great people and good friends.”

“On the plus side, my commute just got a lot shorter.”

“Lots of whispered conversations. Like people are afraid to ask who’s gone.”

“I’m going dark in a few minutes. The HR guy is on his way over to confiscate my laptop.”

Kuder’s Tweets reached a huge, unexpected audience, and he was inundated with sympathy, encouragement, and yes, job leads.

This new form of communication can be a blessing for journalists and writers to showcase their talents and give up-to-the-minute news to readers. It can also provide a much-needed creative outlet for folks who want to share their days with friends and contacts. Twitter even claims that it can be a relief from the daily grind. As their website puts it, “Twitter puts you in control and becomes a modern antidote to information overload.” Whether Twitter creates or minimizes information overload is up in the air, but it certainly has the power to bring blogging to a whole new level.

Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

By Haley January Eckels