By Michelle Lopes

Most people like Twitter because they can have micro-conversations, micro-relationships, micro-broadcasts, and they can even shorten their url to create a micro-link with TinyUrl. How cool is that! It’s easy to use, it’s fun, and for a lot of people it’s the gateway to goodness 140 characters at a time.

But I enjoy Twitter for other reasons…the people themselves. There are so many different types of Twitter personalities that are fascinating to observe. After awhile you can’t help but notice there are similar Twits who have similar missions and personalities. I thought I’d categorize them, not only so they would be easier to recognize, but because I like order and like to make lists. Do you fit into any of these categories?

Money-Maker Twit – Every single tweet is a sales pitch. They don’t actually talk to you, they just want to sell you something.

Twit Tarts – These Twits are starved for love and attention. (and that’s putting it nicely!)

TWA’s – (Twits With Attitudes) You know who you are.

The Town Crier – These are Twits with news. They are a useful bunch and I quite enjoy them.

Tenacious Twits – These Twits are forever on a mission for ways to get more followers. They are obsessed with it.

The “Huh?” Twits – These Twits’ tweets are random and disconnected. The only people that understand these tweets are the Twits who wrote them.

Deep Thought Twits – These Twits are too enlightened for their own good. Warning – trying to understand their philosophy may make your hair hurt! They are borderline “Huh?” twits.

Twits-With-a-Cause – You guessed it, they want to change the world through awareness. They are a serious bunch who find it difficult to relax and have fun.

Tight Lipped Twits – These Twits have absolutely no updates, yet they have followers. Go figure!

Incognito Twits – These Twits use the default avatar instead of uploading their own. For some reason, these Twits bother me the most. Upload something…anything!

The “Say What?” Twit – These are Twits who tweet in a foreign language.

Topic Twits – These Twits try to have regular discussions on Twitter which is next to impossible. You can’t get much momentum with 140 characters at a time.

Playtime Twit - These Twits love to play games, tweet about music, send quizzes, and contribute to the overall fun that is Twitter.

Twitter-Bombers – These Twits send out multiple tweets back-to-back on any subject. They can take up an entire page in a timeline.

Big-Time Twit – These are celebrity Twits.

Twitter Toadies – These are celebrity Twitter groupies.

Twittersaurus – A combination of seven or more categories at once.

Before Twitter, “Twit” was a derogatory term, but not anymore! (Mmmm, technology!) Love Twits or hate them, they are all part of what makes Twitter so special. Technology is wonderful, but it is the people who use the technology with their own personal flair that makes it so great. So get out there and tweet, retweet, follow, unfollow, direct message, put up a nifty background, put up an avatar for God’s sake (!), make new friends, and have fun. Come and join me!

About the Author

Michelle Lopes is the owner of Ebusiness Beltway and the author of Ezine Made Easy

Email Contact: michelle@ebusinessbeltway.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michelle_Lopes
http://EzineArticles.com/?A-Light-hearted-Look-at-Twitter-Types&id=2664726

By Jordan Kent

I first heard of Twitter a year ago and was baffled by its usefulness. However, the website’s popularity has caused me to reexamine and revisit the site. If you are new to the site, twitter is a site in which users frequently broadcast brief updates, usually of one or two sentences long. When I first visited twitter, I saw little value in the social network, but as an educator it’s my responsibility to understand and utilize new media.

Many micro-bloggers use twitter as a means of broadcasting meaningless events from their life. This form of status updates, popular on Facebook and MSN, are refered to as lifecasting. Ashton Kutcher, a frequent and popular Twitterer, is a quitessential lifecaster. Despite logic, Ashton is on his way to becoming the most popular person on twitter. He’s become so popular that he has recently challenged the national newsnetwork CNN to a twitter popularity contest. CNN represents another form of twittering known as infocasting, where small amounts of information are posted. Despite their usefulness, infocasts can often become hollow or superficial. However, a valuable infocast to follow is education where useful news about education trends and developments are posted.

The brighter side of twitter is called mindcasting. Twitterers that are mindcasting will never share their meal choices or bad date experiences; instead, mindcasters share thoughtful ideas and useful resources. Anyone can tap into the thoughts of some of the world’s most innovative minds, which is a great resource for any professional, especially educators.

Top five mindcasts to follow for media literacy teachers

1) Jay Rosen: “I teach journalism at NYU, write the blog PressThink, direct NewAssignment.Net, and try to grok new media. I don’t do lifecasting but mindcasting on Twitter.”
2) David Parry: “I think about things, and talk about things with students, and get paid for it. (Emerging Media Prof. at UT Dallas.)”
3) Scott McLeod: “An Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Educational Administration program at Iowa State University and director of CASTLE.”
4) Alec Couros: “Professor of educational technology & media at the Faculty of Education, University of Regina.”
5) Scott Meech: “Technology in Education isn’t the Future, It is the Present!” He is an expert in education and technology.

Jordan Kent, MA, BEd
I am a teacher at Noranda School in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec. I teach Language Arts, Drama, and Journalism for students from grade 7 to grade 11.
I am a classroom teacher, a blogger, and a writer. I am interested in the future of education, media literacy, and education technology.
Website: http://mrkent.co.nr
Blog: http://teachigen.blogspot.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jordan_Kent
http://EzineArticles.com/?Twitter—The-Good,-the-Bad,-and-the-Ashton-Kutcher&id=2430099