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UPFRONT:TWITTER? PURLEASE, YOU just have to look at the name. Besides, why would anyone feel the need to broadcast their every movement to the world, and what class of eejit would care? Such were my thoughts when I first got wind of the social networking, micro-blogging, real-time, short-messaging service that is Twitter. See? Even its descriptors are a turn-off. Besides, I social network on Facebook, I, er, macro-blog on my blog, and I message on e-mail or via my mobile phone. Twitter me hoop, thought I, and went about my daily business in a Tweet-free world.

Even against my own colleagues’ better judgment, I held strong. Tweeting sounded like the kind of thing a cartoon character might get up to. I taught I taw a number of reasons why such an activity should be avoided, not least the fact that I already spent far too much time every day checking three e-mail accounts, my Facebook account, my blog comments, other people’s blog comments, while also keeping track of text messages and the more common-or-garden phone call. To add Twitter to this list would require a breach in the space-time continuum that could put the planet in jeopardy.