I went to see a counselor this morning. Psychologists make a business out of catching all the small hints that you drop, and saying plainly the things that you don't want to admit to yourself. I was pleasantly surprised.
Afterwards, on the way to my advisor meeting, I saw a truck from a local microbrewery with Facebook and Twitter logos emblazoned on the back. I wondered: why do people follow businesses on Twitter? Businesses have long had email; why don't people use that? (Other than, of course, the fact that people rarely use the best technological tool for a task.) What's the benefit to the follower in using tweets over email?
First, Twitter may allow for conversations, but tweets are generally a broadcast communication, whereas email is typically intended as a conversation in which one expects an eventual reply. The fact that a tweet need not receive any attention makes it less of a mental burden on the subscriber than an equivalent email: we can ignore tweets if we want, but if we stop trying to process our email inboxes, eventually someone's going to notice. Since company-to-people advertising follows this broadcast pattern more closely, perhaps we like it better because it's a better fit for the content.
Second, following a company on Twitter may be a more privacy-preserving act than offering your email address to a company. Since email basically supports anonymous senders, once someone has your address, they (and their affiliates) can spam you as much as they want, and there's little you can do in retribution. Yes, there are such things as filters and the like, but I'll venture a guess that the average person doesn't use them. But on Twitter, (assuming no security holes (which is admittedly generous)) a company can't autosubscribe you to affiliate sites: the follower is in control. And if the company in question is making excessive or annoying tweets, the follower can stop following them. The end user is more in control of this relationship, so perhaps end users are more comfortable following the company.
I should also note that it could turn out that, in fact, none of this matters, and Twitter exists solely as a result of being the biggest player in the market and hype.
While I am dropping CS262A, I think I'm going to keep going to lectures. I enjoy them, Dr. Brewer enjoys having me, and I really do love the learning that I get out of them. Today's 262A lecture discussed the classic Turing Award presentation by Ken Thompson "Reflections on Trusting Trust," which I've read before and absolutely love. The discussion prompted a number of ideas for things that I may implement, either as class projects, or general proofs of concept.