Twitter: What am I doing? Me: Who really cares?

So my dad asked my niece the other day what was this Twitter thing he keeps hearing about.

“It’s all about social networking and stuff, ya know? Like, you go online and you tell all your friends what you are doing. See, like, right now, I am telling you what Twitter is, so I can type in, `I am explaining Twitter to an old guy.’”

So my dad asks why they care.

“Well, like, ya know, so they can tweet me back to tell me what they’re doing right now.”

So my dad asks what is a tweet.

“A tweet is, like, the message you send when you Twitter. So when I tweet, they can tweet me back.”

So my dad asks why would they tweet her back.

“Um, so, then I know what they are doing. Duh!”

So my dad asks what value it adds to her life to know that her friend is, say, eating a piece of toast.

“Geez, ‘cause then I can tweet her that I had toast this morning, too.”

So my dad again asks why would she care.

“HELLL-OOOO. Earth to you ... it’s all about social networking.”

So my dad says that all sounds pretty worthless. Oh, wait, I lost my father years ago. That was me saying all those things. Next thing you know, I will be muttering to anyone who'll listen: “You kooky kids and your Twittering. Don’t you have something better to do with your time?”

The Watertown Daily Times has a Twitter page that we seem to use to steer readers to our Web page. http://twitter.com/WDTnews. I sort of get that. What I don’t understand is Twitter’s general premise: You answer in 140 or fewer keystrokes the question, “What are you doing?” Here are some examples I took at random from Twitter sites across the nation. These are for real. These are tweets I found in cyberspace. I present them unedited ...

... got a new phone today. it’s pretty and purple.

... for the 2nd time in 3 months I have a uti so bad my uterus is infected...meds and bed!

... Drinking some coffee ... need to get motivated!

... Finished translating "Label-Free Electrical Detection of SARS virus with Nanowire Sensors Using Antibody Mimics as Probes" into layspeak.

... Setting up my new Blackberry to work with Twitter!

So there really are Tweethead’s - Twits? - out there who get all atwitter when they read notes like these from their friends? I just don’t get it. But I can play along for a moment ... What am I doing? I just learned that at 51, I have become my dad.