Twitter is used by billions across the world for a variety of reasons. Some use it for fun, some use it seriously. Recently, my class had a group discussion on the topic : “Social Media is a waste of time”. At first, I was like “um What? Okay, I’m gonna speak against it”. Then I found out that – out of the 20 people speaking, only *I* spoke against the topic, while the rest firmly said that, yes, social media is a waste of time.  “Social media gets you hooked”, “You sit staring at your computer for hours together and waste your time”, “Social media is useless, we don’t need to know what a celebrity had for breakfast” were some of the responses. So is really Social Media – we’ll focus on mainly twitter— An art of wasting time? Not really. Here’s why.

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1. You learn. Twitter is a powerful learning tool. So you’re interested in photography? Go follow all the photography related accounts! You like music? Follow all the great musicians on twitter. You love to write? There are tons of amazing bloggers out there! All of them are just a tweet away.

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2. You make friends. You make relationships. You find customers. You find mentors. Where else would you find a student from India like me being friends with a world class blogger from the US, a CEO from Malaysia, and a business woman from Europe?  Twitter has no boundaries. I don’t think this would be possible if twitter didn’t exist.

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3. You become a happier and better person: This is so true. I read so many inspirational tweets that make my day, everyday. Your twitter friends will cheer you up if you feel down. You learn to help each other. You get to know each other. You can make friends for life.

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4. You can promote your stuff. If you’re a writer, you can tweet your blog posts for traffic. If you’re a singer, you can showcase your talent through video sharing (But just be careful not to overdo the promotion bit, interact with followers as well). If you’re a business person, you can find potential customers. If you’re looking for a job, you can find potential employers through twitter too!

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5. You stay updated and get feedback: News spreads like wild fire on twitter – which has both positive and negative sides to it. While I first read about MJ’s death on twitter (which was true), I also read about Jackie Chan’s “death” on twitter (which was a hoax). Hence, you must always check before you believe anything you read on twitter. But then – Twitter was used during the recent earthquakes and Tsunami to update everyone about the safety of twitter peeps which is a great use of twitter! Moreover, companies and businesses can get instant feedback regarding their products and customers can also share their grievances directly to the concerned companies through twitter. This proves to be a win win situation for both – companies as well as customers.

So finally, twitter is SO not a waste of time. I’ve been on twitter for more than a year, and I believe that not a single second was wasted. You just have to know how to use it well. If you agree (or disagree) with my post, please leave a comment below!