Here is another installment in my new series, What the Heck Do You Do on Twitter. This ones comes from Nancy Mucciarone, a junior magazine journalism major at Syracuse University. (Read the whole series.)

If you’d like to tell the world — or at least my readership — how you use Twitter, shoot me an e-mail at savethemedia@yahoo.com or direct message me on Twitter.

Here is what Nancy had to say:

How long have you been on Twitter? I first got on Twitter over the summer, but I only went on it once or twice a month.  When one of my news writing classes centered around Twitter, I started learning how to use it and began following people and tweeting almost everyday.  Now, since October, I’ve been using Twitter at least twice a day.

 
Why did you get started? I originally signed up because a lot of my friends had Twitter, and I knew there was a huge hype surrounding it, especially with celebrities.  I started using it regularly when I got the chance to figure out how to use it. 

Did it end up being different than you expected? I thought that Twitter was just like a Facebook status.  I never really got into it because I didn’t think that I would be interested in it.  I thought that people just updated their statuses randomly, and I thought, “Why would I care what all these random people are doing every second of the day?” 

Now that I’m using Twitter regularly, I’m realizing how much useful information I can get from it.  While there are some random tweets, most of the people I’m following are news sources or people that tweet interesting links.  It’s so much easier to just get on Twitter to get all the major news stories rather than go to six different Web sites to try to figure out what is going on.

 
How much time do you spend on Twitter daily?  How many days a week do you log on?  I recently downloaded a Twitter application for my iPhone, so I find myself going on Twitter at least a few times per day.  I usually just go on and scan through the new tweets and check out any links or stories that I find interesting.  In total, I probably spend about a half hour per day on Twitter.

What is the primary reason you use Twitter? I primarily use Twitter to stay updated on what is going on in the world and in certain organizations that I care about.  I follow news sources like the New York Times, CNN and Syracuse.com, as well as organizations such as Ed2010. 
 

Do you mainly follow people you know in the face-to-face world, strangers, or a little bit of both? I follow people I know and news sources and organizations, but so far, I haven’t followed any strangers.  I follow some of my friends that have already graduated to keep up with what is going on in their lives, and other sources to keep up with what is going on in the world.

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