I consider myself an above-average Facebooker. I update my Facebook status 5-8x per week and no more than twice a day. When Facebook overhauled their interface last year, many people were initially upset that Facebook had once again messed with their product. Yet, Facebook felt obligated to change the core of Facebook’s usability of the ‘Wall’ to meet (and challenge) the growing threat of Twitter’s explosive 2008 growth. In fact, by some accounts Facebook aggressively attempted to acquire Twitter this past Fall but the two couldn’t come to terms on valuation of Facebook’s privately held stock.

The deal with Twitter, if you’ve never heard of it, is essentially a website to update your ‘status’. It has gone mainstream, BIG TIME. It can be looked at in many ways of use. Microblogging, online chat, etc. What were once AIM awya messages are now online aways for anyone to see, at any time. There isn’t any denying that Twitter’s most beneficial aspect is its instant accessibility. There is heavy sentiment that Twitter-like technology could essentially render IM and email obsolete.

But as instant communication and information proliferates, issues with Twitter have sprung. One potential issue is that Twitter makes potentially private situations instantly public.

There are countless situations in which everyone in the room assumes privacy or even “Vegas Rules” (what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas). But when someone is twittering about those situations, the event suddenly becomes public, often very public.

Tweeting makes those messages almost instantly searchable by anyone in the world. You don’t even need a Twitter account to use the Twitter search feature. Moments later, the messages are indexed and available on Google.

And unlike, say, blogs (lol), Twitter posts go viral fast. Users do something called “re-tweeting,” which means they paste a message someone else posted, add the letters “RT” to the front, then re-broadcast it to their own followers. Then some of those followers re-tweet, and so on. By this serial re-tweeting, Twitter posts can spread to hundreds of thousands of Twitter users in minutes. Many of those users are bloggers, reporters, and others with access to other forms of broadcasting.

Is that fair to the other people in the room who believed the situation was private? Some might argue no, it’s not right to publish private events and conversations. But others would say, yes, it’s 2009 and microblogging has become an integral part of human culture.

One of the earliest controversies involving Twitter was the live-blogging by a father of his daughter’s birth, which may have included more medical detail than some followers, or possibly his wife or doctor, may have expected.  Is that okay?

Is it okay for reporters and editors to tweet live events? By doing so, the news is already out there by the time colleagues get out of the event and back to their laptops. Is that fair?

The big argument really seems to be whether Twitter is the greatest thing to ever hit teh interwebs or whether it is just a huge waste of time.

Here’s where I stand. I have a Twitter account. I don’t use it to ‘tweet’, instead I follow a select few public figures that yield my interest. I don’t see myself ever becoming an active Twittererererer, it just doesn’t make sense from an efficiency standpoint. I am a huge proponent of anything new and anything better. I like the idea of Twitter, I just don’t like the way people use it. And that is why it ultimately won’t persevere the ever progressing technology of communication.

Back to the Facebook comparison… the difference between the two?

A Facebook status may be something along the lines of, “Daniel is spending the weekend in Tampa!”

A Twitter status flow would be more like, “Dan is getting on the plane for sunny Tampa!” – “Dan really loves JetBlue’s flight accommodations!” – “OMG, Dan just saw an old lady pick her nose!” – “Dan wishes airlines had better beer selections.” – “Dan has arrived in Tampa! It’s 88 here!” – “Dan can’t wait to meet up with friends and hit the beach!” – “Dan is waiting for his luggage to come out of that stupid machine.”

Get my drift?

Just because it is so accessible and easy, people go overboard with their Twitter updates. Not that I am not interested in the lives’ of people I care about (I routinely check the status updates of all my ‘friends’ on Facebook), but there are only so many hours in a day to stay on top of these things. And who wants to sort through all the crap Tweets often include looking for substance? Thanks, but I have enough to do. An occasional Facebook status is preferred from my standpoint.

But alas, the truth is that an answer to this Twitter question doesn’t exist yet. Stay tuned.