In an extraordinarily thoughtful NYTimes article, David Carr notes some of the ways in which Twitter can be useful, getting far past the objection I don’t need to know someone is eating a donut right now. Carr explains that
On Twitter, anyone may follow anyone, but there is very little expectation of reciprocity. By carefully curating the people you follow, Twitter becomes an always-on data stream from really bright people in their respective fields, whose tweets are often full of links to incredibly vital, timely information.
Additionally, Carr’s thoughtful article explains some of what makes Twitter valuable in clear and specific terms.
I’ve tweeted a handful or fewer times so far, and I have never checked my Twitter stream while logged in. I intend for this to change once I’ve settled on a standalone Twitter client.