Creating Passionate Users: Is Twitter TOO good?

It doesn't seem like so bad of an idea. A tad bit idealistic, and ignores the fact that we divide up and layer our society on purpose. We shell ourselves up with people who we see as similar to ourselves, and shut out the rest. Perhaps if there is a way they could apply some method of connecting "random" people based on a whole series of information such as interests/personality.

According to Mizuko Ito and Howard Rheingold's research, we typically don't telecocoon with more than four or five people. Why would you want to telecocoon with strangers? It makes no sense to me.

Maybe I'm just getting old.

Don't feel like reading that. Here is the headline from twitter's website:

"A global community of friends and strangers answering one simple question: What are you doing?"

Okay. This sounds like a bad parody of the worst aspects of Web 2.0. I mean: I'm not sure how such silliness can be "TOO good". Is it good at all? Walk around any college campus and you are likely to hear the following half-conversation coming from somebody talking to his cellphone:

Person X: Whuzzu?

Person X: Not much. Just leaving class.

Person X: Yeah, just going to class.

Person X: Whuzzu. [click].

How to monetize that? Twitter? Whuzzu?