Darren recently posted about the SethGodin account on Twitter, which is run by someone who simply tweets every time Seth writes a blog post.  This morning, Seth (the real one) posted to explain why he’s not really using Twitter, even though “he” has almost 1,500 followers.

“In 1993, we installed a primitive form of chat on our network at work. I think it was called SnapMail. I discovered pretty quickly that I was spending three or four hours a day using it. I was really good at it. And I also didn’t get as much done as I needed to. So we ripped it out. Just because it was stimulating doesn’t meant it helped with our goal.”

Does Seth think that Twitter is just idol stimulation?  A meaningless distraction?  A worthless time-suck?  I don’t think he does.  He also says:

“I don’t want to use a tool unless I’m going to use it really well.”

Twitter has the potential to be much more than just “stimulating” if you use it right, but it also has the potential to be a meaningless, worthless, worse-than-TV time-sucking distraction.  If Seth tried to use Twitter all day, he probably wouldn’t write any blog posts, respond to every email he gets, or ever finish a book.  But that’s him.  Plenty of people are heavy Twitter users (even those without “a staff”) and still write blog posts and do everything else.  Plenty of people use Twitter to be more effective at their job (and social life).

Like a lot of “social media” there is huge potential to find value in the tool as both a producer and a consumer, but being effective at using it (or, being effective at getting your job done while using it) isn’t necessarily as simple as just diving in.  Seth is smart to not use Twitter half-way.  It will be interesting to see if he ever changes his mind.

Of note: I was actually alerted to Seth’s post via “his” Twitter feed, which I follow so that I can better keep up with his blog.  Which begs the question: if you’re at the point where the community will leverage tools on your behalf to your benefit, do you even need to get good at using them?