Twitter is a strange creature. You only get 140 characters in which to express yourself. It’s funny; you would think that, as someone who wants to write, I would see Twitter as a further nail in the coffin of the written language. Well, call me a hypocrite then, because I have a love-hate relationship with Twitter.

On one hand, like Facebook, the ability to keep in touch with friends and family all over the world is definitely appealing. It could be part sheer curiosity, it could be part generally interested in their daily lives but either way, being able to instantly see what so many people are doing is an amazement of the 21st century.

Twitter, too, has the ability to connect thousands, even millions, of people across the globe. That’s pretty amazing when you consider how much technology has progressed in just 100 years.

On the other hand, I wonder what is so important as to be sent out in a 140-character message that cannot be lengthened into an email or even…a letter! Shock, gasp, whoa there Old Timer! I’m not saying I want to go back to writing letters, far from it, but it does seem to me that Twitter was designed for egomaniacs. “I am so important. Everyone must ‘follow’ me and I will keep you entertained with snippets throughout the day.”

Obviously, this is not the case for most on Twitter and it’s certainly not the case for me. I joined because a good friend tends to use this more than Facebook and I want to keep in touch with that person. I also wonder what contacts or ‘friends’ I might make as I undertake my journalism training. Perhaps they Twitter and so should I; or perhaps not, we shall see.

I barely use Facebook these days. I think I’ve posted a status about once a week, or less, for the last few months. I’m not a daily updater; I’m more of a big event person. There are plenty of “look at me” people on Facebook and I’m sure these people love Twitter too. Funnily enough, it turns out that even though I have a blog, I’m not nearly as egotistical as I thought, at least when it comes to Facebook.

So it does seem slightly odd to join Twitter knowing that hardly anyone will actually want to follow me. But in the end I just thought “why not?” I gave in to Facebook a year ago; why not also give in to Twitter? I am just a 21st century girl, I suppose, but in the end I may just end up being a “twat.”