To twitERR or NOT

I was on a train, talking to my friend over my new mobile phone… infact, boasting about the free Skype and Twitter access I got from the provider.

“I can now Tweet on the go… isn’t that cool?” I said with excitement. Everybody has something to say at any point of time and I thought blogging on the go is probably the coolest thing in the world.

“What is that “tweet” thing son? My grandkids say that all the time” an old man in the train asked me as soon as I hung up. I knew for sure that the old man had no idea about micro-blogging, social networking sites and tweets. So, I sat next to him and showed him how to use twitter from my mobile.

“Mr. Barnes says Good Morning to you all” I tweeted on the go for him! I was feeling so elated about what I just did, but that did not convince Mr. Barnes.

“How does this work? You just wrote something on your mobile. What makes you feel elated?” he asked.

“Well, I have a few followers and they will receive this message real time. And I follow a few people and their message would reach me as well. So we all stay connected,” I said, with pride. Then I showed him the tweets of people I follow.

“Had two idlies for breakfast!”

“Saw one big Teddy bear in the mall… Choo cheewet”

“Don’t know what to tweet today... so, just tweeting ”

He scanned through all the tweets with a weird expression on his face and said “So, lots of useful information huh?” with a sarcastic smile

He then asked, “So, you tweeted just now. What will happen then?”

“Oh! That good morning message? It would have reached a few thousand people now”

“And....?” he asked.

“Everyone will say good morning back to you now” I said and smiled.

“I see… and that’s what you kids do all the time” He said and grabbed my mobile and had a closer look.

“If I understood this correctly… your whole tweet thing is a royal waste of time” he said and handed the mobile back to me

All my smiles faded. I read all the tweets once again. Perhaps, the old man has a point to ponder!