Why I use Twitter? And why not Orkut or Facebook?

So, it all started in 2006 when I was in class 11. The wave of orkut. I still remember, how I missed all the fun, when during the vacations after class X boards, most of my friends got broadband connections at their homes and started using orkut and became so close with each other and even with girls. I came to know of orkut only when it was too late sometime at the end of August 2006.

The thing was: I was so alone, most of my friends had changed schools (mostly to Vivekanand) and I stuck to DAV maybe because of my love for the school. And I had only this Reliance fixed wireless phone that was my gateway to the internet but at a heavy cost (Rs. 30/hour during the day and Rs. 15/hour at the night - 10PM onwards) and low speed 144kbps. So, I couldn’t use the net much. And I didn’t know about orkut too which could have been a great help to relieve me from my loneliness.

Well, then next year, on September 16, 2007 (see, how I remember some dates perfectly ;) ) I got a BSNL DataOne Broadband connection. So, the burning desire in me came out. I became addicted to orkut. I did all sort of the things - tried to maintain a good profile, made a lot of friends (mostly those who were my classmates, then and before in class X), I even created an anonymous profile and created a lot of hype among DAVians (online, of course and anonymously). Well, that was the month of October 2008 and I deleted the account around mid-November.I even deleted my own profile after that (and restored it after some months. Google had not deleted anything from my profile,everything was intact, curse Google for this).

Well, you may have noted, how technology affects a simple life.

So, next came Facebook. I was hearing about it for a lot of time then - on TV, among friends, in newspapers. But I was reluctant to join it after having this much experience with orkut. But then I joined both Facebook and MySpace on October 9, 2008, ‘cause: I realized how important it was to be social, to have your network and have friends. Well, by that time, I was ready with my website TechGlider.com and my blog (this blog), so I got a nice to way to promote my creations and social networking sites help, really.

I had disliked orkut for a lot of time now and found this Facebook really clean and appealing to eyes with its white and blue color combination. It was far better than orkut’s crappy color combinations and weird Scrapbook system. So, now it was Facebook, a lot of friends started joining it (yeah, this time I wasn’t that late) and I became a Facebook addict. As far as MySpace is concerned, nobody seems to be using it in India, and I still have only 2 (known) friends in my MySpace profile. And I didn’t like its interface either.

So, I realized very early that I was wasting time (again) on Facebook and its good-for-nothing applications. So, I minimized its use too. This was the time of my vacations this year (May - June).

Then came twitter in my life:

Though, I had joined twitter on December 14, 2008, I didn’t start using it actively until this July. What I found was: twitter was so simple. The main reason to start using it was the everyday news of celebrities and famous personalities like Shashi Tharoor using twitter. So, I started following them on twitter. Initially it were Mallika Sherawat, Gul Panag, Shashi Tharoor and many other media personalities. But, soon I found that except for Tharoor, others were just a waste of time to follow. And I had started finding some really good people ranging from Atul Chitnis, Kishore Bhargava to simple individuals who were doing something or other in the technology field. I had finally got something really useful to spend some time on.

The reason I like twitter is that it facilitates in getting latest news or info about anything that is creating waves around the world, so easily and early. We have some really nice discussions on topics that matter with people you know are something in industry and that’s what makes all the difference. It’s not a mere social network where you create profiles and waste time. It helps you express yourself and it has even helped me in making a lot of senior friends (or acquaintances) in college.

And the best part: it doesn’t create frustration as with orkut and facebook did.

Well, I know, this has been a long post, but the writer in me just doesn’t want to stop writing (typing, you know, the modern writer). I am stopping myself here (forcefully). A lot posts about the excitements in my life are to follow.

Do post your comments on orkut, facebook, myspace, twitter or even my blog whether you hate them or love them. I love criticism and would like to improve on my skills.

BTW, I forgot to tell, you can follow me on twitter at: twitter.com/k4rtik