The limits of Twitter, brevity, and depth

[http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1219/895220635_71c0ea6ee4_m.jpg|240x160px|Creative independence by nattu on Flickr]

This morning, I drafted a tweet asking the Twitter anime community (aniTwittersphere?) to list the anime works that get them riled up. Emotional reaction points to what a person cares about.

I quickly thought better of my question, though, because a strong emotional reaction isn't as informative as the reason for that reaction. On Twitter, there are only so many characters available to express one's opinion. The limitations of the medium compress one's expression.

As useful as those restrictions can be, it limits deep conversation. While one arguably could send ten consecutive tweets on one topic, that appears rude. It feels wrong. That's partly cultural and partly conceptual: a tweet is a tweet, a single item, and feels like it should be as self-contained as possible.

So, how is Twitter good for us, the English-speaking anime blogosphere? It's useful for news, although we already have ANN for that. Otherwise, most of the content consists of folks talking about their day or the anime they're watching. As I type this, @DarylSurat started a conversation about public dislike of anime, which is interesting but garnering minimal attention. There doesn't appear to be much direct utility here for us.

Now, if Twitter is a toy, that's fine. Most anime fans treat it that way; it's a way to talk about their day, and see their friends' days. No problem. But how are the serious anime bloggers using it? Are they using it at all?

And how could it be used, so that it provides a useful outlet or platform for us?

I'm just thinking about it, at the moment. What do you think?

@DarylSurat