I'm finally on Twitter . . . should I follow Justin Bieber?

I am sensing a lot of hesitation and hearing a lot sighs coming from fellow CreComm peers as we are starting our Twitter accounts. I have always been on the fence about Twitter, not hating it and not loving it, so what I have decided I would weigh the pros and cons of Twitter and see which is more appealing.


Five bad things about Twitter:
1) I have only been tweeting for a short time, building my base of followers and people that I follow and it  is already getting out of control. Whenever I look at my phone, I have received a Twitter alert and sometimes when I go to my Twitter home page it is hard to navigate through the mountain of information that I have before me, including paying attention to all the people I am following. There is just so much information to navigate and it seems hard at times to just see what I want to see. 
2) The random people that follow you that you do not know. Stop following me!!
3) It can be addictive. My first day on Twitter I checked it multiple times, tweaking the appearance and finding people to follow, and now that I follow these people I have an obligation to read what they are Tweeting.
4) You have to be extra careful to maintain a professional image just in case a prospective employer looks at your page, or anyone that you don't want to see the vulgar or crass things you Tweet. 
5) It is just another thing to distract people from their everyday lives. I can think of many things to do with my time that would be more productive than being on Twitter. Like . . . putting together that bookshelf that you have sitting around but you refuse to find the time to build it, read a book like A Year of Living Generously, or taking your dog for a walk.


Five good things about Twitter:
1) The 140 character limit doesn't give the you a lot of space to babble, allowing you to think more about what you are going to say and in such a small space, it allows people to just cut to the chase.
2) It can be used as a strategy to promote yourself or a business.
3) It is trendy and Twitter is so huge, it has become so powerful that it will not be going any time soon and every day more and more people will get a Twitter account, which by the way is extremely simple. A few clicks here, some information there, another click and boom. You've got yourself a Twitter account and can begin Tweeting.
4) It is a great place to get important headlines that interest you and you know that it will because you don't follow people that won't interest you.
5) Convenient and simple to use, not inly on the computer but on cell phones and iPods.


It is difficult to decide whether Twitter is good or bad. It can be very useful if you use it properly and don't let it rule your life and become a distraction. 
I am going to embrace my Twitter account as a part of my life now and make the best of it. I might even learn to like it.