In the last few weeks, I’ve become obsessed with Twitter.  To my surprise, this obsession happened very quickly and may not be short-term.

In essence, I’ve drunk the Twitter Kool-Aid.

I think microblogging and sites like Twitter will have tremendous growth in the future. Because Twitter spreads virally, from a group of networked friends, to another group of friends, it spreads very quickly.

Updates aren’t about what you’re doing now. It’s not to see if you’ve just ordered a grande latte from Starbucks or where you are right now. It’s really about how you’re feeling. What you’re reading. What you’re writing about. Photos you’ve taken and want to share. It’s pretty much a mini-Facebook.

Facebook has started to take on Twitter recently. (See the TechCrunch article about why Facebook won’t beat Twitter.) They announced they were opening up their Facebook updates so that any third-party developer can use them. No doubt, Twitter’s popularity is definitely worrying the folks over at Facebook. That’s because when it comes down to it, Facebook’s greatest appeal is the Twitter-like updates. The great part of Facebook is having your own home page, playing games or using the third-party apps. But the updates are the heart and soul of Facebook. It’s bring out your community and fosters more conversation.

Because I use both Twitter and Facebook, I’ve linked my Twitter updates to Facebook, so that they appear for all my Facebook friends. But I’ve been rethinking this strategy. Many Facebookers have not made the move to Twitter yet. As such, Facebookers will encounter strange messages from linked Twitter message. For example: a) Facebookers will see a huge increase in Twitter/Facebook updates because of the interactive nature of Twitter, b) there’s lots of Twitter-specific language, like hashtags, re-tweets and replies to other Twitters and c) essentially if you’re not on Twitter you miss being left out of the Twitter conversation. Also, Twitter’s updates are shared around the entire Internet through third-party APIs. Meanwhile, Facebook is only available to your circle of friends.

Anyway, I’m definitely interested in all the media sharing aspects of Twitter, so I’ll continue to look at that in the future. In fact, Facebook said they would even allow posting of video from their updates–I’m definitely interested in that.

For now, why not follow me on Twitter. I’m at @jalvear - but be forewarned. Twitter can be addictive.