After a lengthy debate on last nights podcast, much was said about twitters mass appeal. What keeps people coming back to the micro blogisphere and how twitter plans on making money was one of the main debates.

I personally have been pulled into the twitter frenzy to a certain extent. My school of thought is a simple one. Follow good people and receive good tweets. I've found that twitter is like a giant mixing bowl. Every person you add to this bowl will create a different outcome to the final product. If you aren't interested in hearing about one's mundane tasks than simply don't follow them.

Now this might seem like a self-indulgent act of rudeness. It is common place for one to follow those who follow us, however this is another key ingredient to avoiding disaster. Think of who you choose to follow as the temperature at which you decide to cook the contents of this mixing bowling. If you get it too hot the mixture is likely to either blow up or burn down the house.

The quality of content you receive on twitter is completely dependent to the exact proportion of ingredients that you choose. With this being said, I'm not trying to be a advocate for the use of twitter. I think that if twitter serves you well, than you have stumbled upon a formula that creates success for your needs.

So what what makes this form of social media so successful? With the advent of so many ways to connect to Twitter, it creates a very uninhabited and almost unconscious way to connect to the world. If one is to be successful with twitter they must choose their tweets carefully.

A great example of twitter abuse comes to mind in the latest John Mayer and Jennifer Aniston debacle. Mayer used twitter to an almost obsessive compulsive amount. Tweeting on every thing he was doing. Aniston saw these tweets, and realized Mayer had lied about his whereabouts. Breakups and heartbreak, ensued. Who cares?! I digress. This is a perfect example of how improper use of Twitter can not only back fire on you, but create an environment that gives Twitter its bad name as an unproductive tool.

When the time is right to use a tool like this, it shines through the bleakness of it all. Instant and first hand perspectives on events are at the heart of twitter, ones of its greatest assets. Think for a moment if Twitter was around when 9/11 happen. To have insight on the events on a ground level would have changed the way most media presented the stories. Or at the very least would have given people an opportunity to hear the happenings from a sort of grass roots level.

Overall Twitter is a double edged sword. Providing as much distress as it does appeal. This is one tweeter who will continue to find a productive use for it in my life. I haven't quite gotten there yet, but maybe if I mix a little harder, and throw some sugar in there I can sweeten things up.

Dan