Acidus wrote:

So there's your tweet from your sweet, Lance Armstrong. He's watching the Belgium cycling race La Fleche Wallone. Does receiving that information make you feel like you're part of something? And if so, what? And why?

Am I sounding negative? Even petty? Sue me. Everybody has a limit, and I've reached mine with Twitter, which isn't just the world's fastest-growing social networking tool. It's a religion, filling the hole in regular people's regular lives.

Don't look at me like that. I'm not the neighborhood crank, kicking you kids off my lawn. I've embraced the blogging revolution, bookmarking multiple sites and visiting them every day. More than 20 million Americans write a blog, many of them for audiences approaching zero. Less than 9 percent of the blogging public makes any money at all, and only 2 out of every 100 bloggers support themselves fully. But still 20 million people do it. And I get that. It's personal expression. It's art. Doesn't matter whether it's done well or not. Art is art. So I get blogging.

Facebook and MySpace? I don't get that, unless it's for dating purposes. Horniness, I understand. The need to tell people what you're doing at various junctures of the day? And to read what other people are doing? Gregg is folding clothes ... I don't understand. And I never will. My life shouldn't be that interesting to you, and your life damn sure isn't that interesting to me.

Twitter is the great equalizer. It connects nobodies with somebodies. Through twitter I've been able to connect with 'important' people that I could never have gotten through to before. In some cases I've gotten to know people I really wanted to know, who literally ignored my emails before twitter.

The effect on the Atlanta 'startup scene' has been overwhelming. The money used to be separated from the hackers by 285, and nobody spoke. Now you can access every investor and startup mentor in Atlanta directly or indirectly through twitter or their blog.

But don't tweet monotony. Tweet controversy. Tweet interesting links. Tweet opinions. Be funny, be interesting.

RE: 'This Twitter thing is annoying as hell' -- Gregg Doyel at 6:01 p.m. - CBSSports.com News, Fantasy, Video