First of all, who cares? Very few people, if any.
Second, today perhaps nobody knows why. There a couple of blogs (and here), which are trying to connect Twitter to Abraham Maslow's Theory of Human Motivation. The authors speculate which kind of human needs does Twitter satisfy and how. I think people largely misinterpret Maslow's theory and take his motivation theory out of context. Only those, who have never read Maslow's books could claim that "According to Maslow, everything we do is derived from and revolves around a certain need we are seeking to satisfy". According to Maslow people, who do everything for a reason, to satisfy certain need, are mentally sick. Healthy people do a lot of things without any motivation, spontaneously, because they are so. Also, according to Maslow people often behave this way or another because some of their basic needs are thwarted. It does not mean they are aware which need is deprived and are consciously trying to address it. It not too very often happens, and only with those who have relatively strong mental health.
Obviously different people Twit for different reason. Just this mechanistic calculation: this type of Twit for this need, this type of Twit for that need, looks stupid. Definitely not what Maslow was trying to say.
Why does bird fly? Because it's a bird. Why do we do a lot of things spontaneously, thoughtlessly? To satisfy our higher needs? Not always. To satisfy my higher needs I will read a book, but will not hum a song. I will hum because I'm humming now (thanks, Winny). Even not for fun. Just without any reason.
Perhaps this is the power of Twitter that it allows people to get of out controlled and motivated (Maslow would call "coping") behaviour, to throw something silly in the air without caring too much who will pick up it, just for fun. Over-controlled behavior is too boring and in fact dangerous.
Personally I follow a relative small number of Twits from people I have an interest in. I do not care too much what they write, but do get a better idea about what kind of people they are.
I started my Twit because I wanted to learn something about social networks, but after a while I realised that I like it. While I'm on travel it gives me a way to take off some burden (Oh Lord, stop feeding me tuna!). But basically I think it's completely unmotivated. Just a nice gardget to toy with. I may stop it one day, or to continue building my digital astral body till the death. Who knows.
Obviously, some people and organizations are using Twitter for a carefully crafted brain washing and self-promotion. Such danger does exist, indeed. And Twitter still needs to find a way to make money out of their technology. I think when it starts to be over-commericialized the digital flock will fly to elsewhere. All in all any fashion is not for ever.
Another comment. I found Twitter somehow similar to haiku - very short Japanese verses, popular in Zen Buddhism. I have very little what to do with Buddhism, but I like this short concise form, which helps you freeze the moment in sometimes completely irrational sequence of words. May be a kind of new era for proustian or joician flow of conscious? Hard to know, it's unconscious.
Now the only question remains. If I'm so spontaneous and free of any self-promotion calculations, why do I put these sexy icons of my Twitter, Twitterpc and Blogger as a digital signature of my e-mail. Isn't it a hypocrisy? Marketing without marketing as they call it. I hope the answer is no, even though in this kind of things it's hard to be 100% sure. As part of my work I often come across some interesting materials (blogs, presentations). I also periodically write by myself. It's a way to improve professional knowledge. I used to push this stuff via e-mail to some of colleagues, but I have never done it systematically. I also found this push style too intrusive. What if somebody does not want to get them, or do not want others to know that they do get it? For that reason I decided to put the links at the end of my e-mail. Who wants will read, who doesn't - will not. Free choice, so to speak. I was also interested to know where do these nice icons come from. Apparently each Web site has a special file called favicon.ico. Technically it's a bit cumbersome - needs to be converted to png, but looks nice. We are engaged in the electronic media business. Some familiarity with what's up will not hurt.
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