Tweet-to-whom?

About five years ago we were loading up with supplies at the local builder's merchants and suddenly realised the little one had disappeared, (sure we've all had those moments where your blood runs cold?). I raced along the warehouse aisles calling her name. Suddenly I spotted her. She had made herself at home in the bathroom area and was sitting, trousers round her ankles on a display loo. We cracked potty training eventually, and here she is now a few short years later asking for a SIM card for her birthday. Whereas my phone at her age looked like the one above, she has played with a cast-off mobile for years. It's incredible how instinctive children's use of technology is now - even the three year old (still in nappies), knows how to operate the computer and call up 'Little Einsteins' on demand TV. The latest craze - especially among kids who text more than talk, is Twitter.

Do you get Twitter? Out of all the networking sites it's the one that has me flummoxed. What's it for? Are you really interested in what someone had for dinner, or that they are going to bed now? Rather as blogging achieved the Times' seal of approval last weekend with Brian Appleyard's pick of the 100 best blogs, Twitter hit the mainstream headlines recently thanks to Stephen Fry's 144,000+ followers. Mr Fry's Tweets - as you would imagine - are witty, effortless and beautifully turned. However, most Tweets seem to be spam marketing from Mom-preneurs. What's your experience so far?

There must be ways to use it creatively, (haikus? bantus? short stories one line at a time?), but so far I can't see it. The other networking sites - Facebook, Bebo, Myspace etc - just have more flexibility. With several friends they've replaced email. But wittering on Twitter - if we met in person, I'm more of a listener than a witterer, so perhaps it's a question of disposition. Tweets just seem to be more about 'me, me, me ...' than ideas or communication. What do they call devotees of Twitter anyway - Twits?

Maybe it's just a question of getting used to a new way of communicating. It makes me think of a lovely litho of an old Heinz 57 mongrel I saw in a gallery once: 'Tricks? I don't do tricks'. I'm going to experiment with putting the daily writer's prompts up as Tweets - let me know if it's helpful?

TODAY'S PROMPT: A friend emailed me today's video clip, and it's the silliest, most life-enhancing thing I've seen all week. A grown man dancing his way around the globe roping in complete strangers neatly summarises everything that's good about the way we are able to communicate freely across the world thanks to the technology we all have at our fingertips. I've said to a lot of people that WKDN has become more like a global writer's group than a blog, (sadly without the tea/biscuits or post-group visit to the pub). In that spirit why don't you let me know what you'd like to see more of, or less of? What would you like to know? Would you like more 'nuts and bolts' type prompts about the basics of creative writing? Why not send me a comment - or a tweet?