But the claim that Twitter is nothing but mindless inanities is just as wrong as the analogous claim for blogs — in fact it’s precisely the same claim, five years later. There are other things you can do with the technology — the technical terms are "lifecasting" [here’s what I had for dinner] vs. "mindcasting" [here’s a thought, a question, an observation, a link to something more substantial].

Twitter, the micro-messaging service where users broadcast short thoughts to one another, has been widely labeled the newest form of digital narcissism. And if it's not self-obsession tweeters are accused of, it's self-promotion, solipsism or flat out frivolousness.

But naysayers will soon eat their tweets. There's already a vibrant community of Twitter users who are using the system to share and filter the hyper-glut of online information with ingenious efficiency. Forget what you had for breakfast or how much you hate Mondays. That's just lifecasting.

Mindcasting is where it's at.

I teach journalism at NYU, write the blog PressThink, direct NewAssignment.Net, and try to grok new media. I don't do lifecasting but mindcasting on Twitter.