Image credit: Alex Zarnoski (and Twitter)
Twitter is for "porn." Not only can you follow celebrities, public figures, and friends, you can also follow just about anything. And this isn't to say you can't follow a healthy pair of personified knockers or a happy-go-lucky, singing ding-dong... Twitter can also be a powerful tool for communication and media consumption. I'll do my best to squeeze my remaining thoughts into a cozy 140 characters.
First of all, I’ll bet you didn’t think about Twitter and porn in the same sentence. Who would use Twitter for such a thing?! Many people already do, including myself. Lets achieve Twitter climax together by exploring a few different ways to get the most out of your Twitter account.
Pornography:
3: the depiction of acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse a quick intense emotional reaction <the pornography of violence>
The above is the third of Merriam-Webster’s lovely definitions for pornography. I believe this is a fitting representation of Twitter for more than a few reasons. The impact that Twitter has had on the world is a phenomenon. It's evident in the way we now communicate as a society and its effects are even worth studying.
Humans love properly executed social interaction. Poor execution makes for messy PR cleanup. Some humans (admittedly or not) love to gossip and read gossip. Twitter doesn’t have to be just for girls swooning over @justinbieber, nor does it have to be for people telling each other what they are doing every second of everyday! There are practical uses.
My favorite way to use Twitter would have to be for news consumption. I don’t like to read the newspaper because not everything is relevant to my interests (us young’ins love what’s relevant to us because we grew up with technologies that skimmed and catered to our interests). However, it’s still important to keep up with your community and the world. There’s no better way to skim through news headlines especially when they can be no more than 140 characters.
If a tweet is properly executed, it can give me valuable information, such as the subject of the article and enough information that keeps me up to date on a social basis. Even if I don’t have time to follow the link and read the entire article, I am still way ahead of somebody that is unaware of the happenings in the world. Plus, my fingers stay ink-free and...I was never great at folding a newspaper.
my favorite news sources:
 @newser |  @cnnbrk |  @nytimes |  @CNET |
Did You Know?
If you're already following too many people and don't want to add anymore clutter to your stream, you don't actually have to follow anybody in order to create a list. For example, you can create a list for news, a list for celebrities, and a list with only your friends. Lists can also be shared with your followers or be rendered hidden from prying eyes.
If you hate reading, you don’t have to read! Twitter inadvertently provides its users many ways to avoid the alphabet by allowing app developers to integrate Twitter into their services. (Twitter also launched its very own, unique video sharing service called Vine). Many apps such as Squrl, Plizy, Showyou, VHX, and Vodio allow users to connect their Twitter accounts, which scans their following list for links to videos. Also, some of these apps allow mobile devices to stream to their TVs via AirPlay and other methods such as HDMI.
Here’s an exercise to help achieve Twitter climax: Create a list of Twitter accounts that include rich media in their links (make sure to follow them too). For example, @mashablevideo links its users to a plethora of different videos from the web. In fact, many blogs and news organizations dedicate separate Twitter accounts for video only.
My Favorite Video Sources:
 @mashablevideo |  @Revision3 |  @Vimeo |  @Howcast |
Some of this information applies to photos as well. Twitter apps including the official Twitter app, TweetDeck (Twitter owned), and Tweetbot do a great job of displaying photos in unique ways. Usually, Twitter automatically displays photos uploaded via Twitter without having to visit external sites (lets skip the Instagram story for now).
Defining communication on Twitter is slightly complicated, since Twitter has already done a nice job of redefining it. A single tweet might be communicated from one person to hundreds, thousands, or even millions. This is all dependent on your following, the people that you personally follow, and the restrictions placed on an individual tweet.
For example, if I were to tweet, "@AjazzNetworks You're RANTs are seriously rant-o-licious," the text would appear in the stream of the account that is being mentioned. Users can also privately message each other using direct messaging. These tweets will not be displayed in a stream on either users list of public tweets.
While "communication" is actually taking place, the majority of the time you are simply trying to share the things with others that interest you. For example, journalists will plug their personal work or break news via Twitter before writing a longer form article on the subject. No matter what you are trying to communicate to someone, Twitter offers great ways to quickly and succinctly relay information on a mass scale. Chances are, if what you are tweeting is trend-worthy, somebody is bound to #MakeItTrend.
For example, if I were to tweet, "@AjazzNetworks You're RANTs are seriously rant-o-licious," the text would appear in the stream of the account that is being mentioned. Users can also privately message each other using direct messaging. These tweets will not be displayed in a stream on either users list of public tweets.
While "communication" is actually taking place, the majority of the time you are simply trying to share the things with others that interest you. For example, journalists will plug their personal work or break news via Twitter before writing a longer form article on the subject. No matter what you are trying to communicate to someone, Twitter offers great ways to quickly and succinctly relay information on a mass scale. Chances are, if what you are tweeting is trend-worthy, somebody is bound to #MakeItTrend.
Twitter / Zarnoski
Sorry. I totally lied to you. I didn't squeeze this information into 140 characters... But I did just tell you exactly how to use Twitter for porn.
