New Real-Time Messaging Services Overwhelm Some Users With Mundane Updates From Friends
Though she already has a blog, a podcast and a character in the virtual world of Second Life, Kera Richard has recently become obsessed with a new online tool for connecting with friends. For the past three weeks, she has joined the crowds on Twitter.com, a site that invites everyone to answer the question: "What are you doing?"
"I didn't get it at first," said the 32-year-old Randolph, N.J., project manager for a financial services company. "How much information do I really need to let the world know about me?"
But soon she was "Twittering" a dozen or more times a day, broadcasting quick, as-they-happen updates to friends who had chosen to link to her through the service. Topics ranged from her lunch (tomato soup and a pretzel) to work annoyances (a high-pitched buzz from a nearby computer). She sent updates from her office and home computers, and used her cellphone to send posts from her car and a bar at happy hour. "It became addicting very quickly," she said.
Twitter is one of several growing services, including Google Inc.-owned Dodgeball, that tie together instant messaging, social networking and wireless communication. Twitter allows members to use their computers or cellphones to distribute short messages on what they're doing. Each message is limited to 140 characters, but there are no limits on how many messages a user can send. Members specify whether they want to be alerted by a text message on their phones or an instant message on their PCs when friends post updates.
Like most social-networking sites, once a person opens a Twitter account they can invite their friends to join or connect with existing members. Each member gets a personal Web page that logs all their posts. Some members limit their networks to a handful of friends while others sign up to receive instant updates from dozens of members.
These services elicit mixed feelings in the technology-savvy people who have been their early adopters. Fans say they are a good way to keep in touch with busy friends. But some users are starting to feel "too" connected, as they grapple with check-in messages at odd hours, higher cellphone bills and the need to tell acquaintances to stop announcing what they're having for dinner.
