Until now I've remained pretty quiet about the whole Twitter thing.  I've been silently following it for a few months now and I even signed up for an account a few weeks ago.  But now, as I scan Techmeme, I'm once again being confronted with just how popular this little site has become.

I'm going to assume you know what Twitter is.  How could you not?  It's gone from a service with a couple thousand early adopters to making major headlines in the Wall Street Journal.  Just in case you've been out of the loop, there's a Newbie's Guide to Twitter at Webware that should get you caught up to speed.

The article at the Wall Street Journal echos the sentiment that I've had for a while now in regards to Twitter.  Several folks that the WSJ talked to are already reacting against Twitter.  They talk about deleting accounts, blocking people, and creating separate accounts for their "real friends".

When is enough really enough when it comes to social networking?

I understand the fact that some people want to be this connected.  They want to know every little move that their friends are making.  But are dozens, hundreds, or thousands of text messages every time someone has a thought really that great?  Are we moving toward a future of ultimate connection in which the Internet and mobile devices make privacy a thing of the past?

Now before you jump all over me, I'll offer up a few counters to this argument of my own:

• No one is forced to use any of these social networking services
• Twitter users can turn off or completely ignore the text messaging options

But what if you're the only person in your "social circle" that isn't Twitter or MyScaping or whatever the social network of the hour happens to be?  We've already seen reports and claims of the negative impact of online communication.  Are people interacting less on a face to face basis than they were 30 years ago?  Will Twitter-like services make talking and interacting with our fellow humans even less obsolete and "old school"?

How long before people start exploiting Twitter for marketing purposes?  Will corporations start Twittering to send us "product updates" and "important messages"?  I won't even go into the possible negative consequences of even more social connecting.

We've got news feeds streaming in all day.  We've got email… instant messages… blog comments… spam of all varieties… MySpace messages… Facebook pokings… telephone calls… text messages… voicemail… postal mail…

Do you get the picture?

I'm not really one to talk, I suppose.  I monitor about 300 feeds a day… send and receive dozens of emails a day… spend around 12 hours a day in front of the WordPress admin… text message… and even MySpace from time to time.  So I'm one of the people using all of these services.

But I guess that's why I don't understand the Twitter phenomenon.  I already felt pretty connected.  And here comes this service that I'm supposed to update throughout the day to let people know what I'm doing at all times.  In the couple of weeks that I've had an account I've sent a total of 17 updates.  And 5 or so of those were test posts.  If you don't keep the thing updated it becomes "just another blog".

So I want to know… from any Twitter users out there… what makes you love it so much?  What is so compelling about letting everyone know every minute detail about what you're doing?  Do you ever turn it off?  And if you do turn it off, what prompts you to disconnect?

Seriously… I'd love to get some feedback from a couple of die hard Twitter users.  Leave a comment or drop me a line.  Keep in mind that I'm not attacking Twitter by any means.  I simply don't understand the appeal.  And I'd love to get some perspective on it.