I've spent (wasted?) a goodly chunk of the last month in Twitter. For those who haven't encountered it, it is a rapid-fire, miniblogging system which restricts each post to 140 characters. For those so-minded, it means they can post ten times as many items per day as when they were blogging. The posts appear on your computer screen or (selectively) on your mobile phone as text messages.

As you might expect, many of the 'in-crowd' hang out there - Scoble, Macleod, Le Meur and so on. A lot of the time they don't so much Twitter as witter. But then, every twenty posts or so, someone comes up with some really useful information. Obviously, you choose who to 'follow' so your diet should include some nourishment along with all the filler. The trick is not to eat everything that's put in front of you. Push it around the plate a bit and pick out the good bits.

A couple of months ago, these same people were all over Facebook. It was 'the' place to hang out. And, before that, of course, they were all busy trying to become 'A-list' bloggers. I don't think blogging's died for them but, judging from the current mood, Facebook is definitely falling from favour.

The great thing about all this is that if the ego-driven, time-wasting, blog postings are being shrunk and shifted to Twitter, then what's left ought to be a better, more thoughtful, blogosphere.

We can live in hope.

Happy new year.