.

I now know far too much about certain acquaintances due to their relentless unloading of mental ephemera on Twitter, and am now more likely to avoid them socially in the future.

It's a potential downside.

I blame skirky.

but after a couple of weeks of getting endless tweets from people I didn't know about stuff that didn't interest me, I withdrew.

I'm still not sure what you're meant to be getting out of it.

I wouldn't have found this without Twitter

http://media.photobucket.com/image/recent/West_Ham66/falldating1.jpg

or the defaced David Cameron posters

http://mydavidcameron.com/

I agree with you Nicodemus, I was a bit sniffy about Twitter but I really enjoy it now, particularly the mix of people on there - John Prescott, David Lloyd, Graham Linehan - and the jokes and links.

But it has its place. I'm an English teacher and follow around 150 colleagues around the world - hardly a day goes by when I don't get an interesting link/tip via Twitter. Time-consuming mind you.

it's almost impossible to explain the appeal of Twitter to someone who doesn't already use it