Twitter: New social network acts as the Ultimate Stalker Tool

02/27/09 - You wake up, hit snooze a few times, turn on your computer and check your e-mail. Maybe you sign on to Facebook but hey, nothing interesting is happening at 7:30 a.m.Classes come and go, your cell phone is constantly beeping with new text messages, voicemails and maybe e-mails, but if you've got a BlackBerry, those can easily be checked.

You come home; check Facebook, e-mails, maybe hop on a few other social sites like MySpace or the more professional LinkedIn.

But apparently, despite the calls, texts and Facebook status updates you've witnessed, it still is necessary to track your best friend's (or the cute neighbor's) every move.

Enter Twitter, the ultimate stalker tool.

Just a few years ago - Twitter's Web site says 2006 - a group of men decided that the world needed yet another social network. Now, millions of people are using Twitter.

Twitter, for those of you who haven't heard about it, sends "Tweets" (yes, that's right. Tweets.) to friends who have signed up to "follow you" (exact wording) on this network. You can tell them anything: "I am eating a bowl of cereal," for example. "I just witnessed a naked man running down the street," or maybe it's a question, "Who is watching Gossip Girl tonight?"

Riveting stuff, indeed. How many people scoffed at the idea of Facebook statuses and Minifeeds, joining groups against them and boycotting Facebook until it went away ... that lasted long. Eventually, everyone gave in and updates their status with equally mundane and random things. I myself updated my friends on being locked out of my house earlier this morning via Facebook status ... friends here, back home, random people from the 2nd grade, my sister and a former professor, to name a few.

Necessary? No. Humorous? Slightly. Did this status update alert every one of my 1,043 friends on Facebook on their cell phone or send an irritating e-mail saying "Chloe Thompson has just updated her Facebook status!" No.

But Twitter, bothering people with annoying messages from a barrage of people you don't really care about ... that is completely unnecessary.

I understand some of the pros of Twitter. Even our president uses it to update his citizens on the happenings at the White House. And he should be commended for that, and for using up-to-date "hip" technology. But Twitter shouldn't be used by every person on this planet.

Is there really a difference between Twittering and text messages? Each one can be blasted to a certain number of recipients. Each one can be sent to one receiver. Each one is instantaneous. And yet, a text message doesn't require you to go to another Web site, blog or whatever platform you're "tweeting" from. A word to the wise: The Twitter Web site tells me that your profile is automatically public. Set those privacy settings so you avoid at least some of the crazies. And to add privacy settings, to block certain people, block everyone, block everyone but your mom ... well, that's a lot of finagling, all explained on the Twitter's help page.

There is one group, in my opinion, allowed to use Twitter. That's breaking news outlets. The point of breaking news is to receive it, instantaneously. If there's another form to alert people of important events before it goes to print, I am for it.

I receive updates from the Providence Journal and the New York Times each morning, and if there's breaking news, my BlackBerry buzzes until I read the damn e-mail. Apparently, even our editor-in-chief has decided the Good Five Cent Cigar needs to get in on this fad, so we have a Twitter page. (Check out the link on www.ramcigar.com. There, I said it.)

My point, people, is that unless you're the president of our country or a media outlet, there's no need to let people know what type of freakin' socks you're wearing or that you're "having an emotional crisis." If people really care that much, I'm sure you'll hear from them.