Does Twitter have to be useful?

Maybe I’m missing the point.

You cannot throw a cat without hitting a blog talking about Twitter. Everyone seems to have pretty strong opinions about it. It seems to be a love or hate thing.

A couple Twitter bits of love:

Kevin Lim’s Theory is the Reason goes into incredible depth on its who’s using it, why they’re using it and how to use it better.

Tara Hunt of Horse•Pig•Cow exalts Twitter for helping her keep grips on her thoughts, activities and friends.

A bit of Twitter disdain:

Kathy Sierra’s Creating Passion Users suggests that Twitter is further strain on our already stretched attention spans and ability to focus.

Darren Barefoot at DarrenBarefoot.com takes a shot or two at Twitter and then does a very funny look at what Shakespeare’s Twitter entries might look like.

And now…love or hate, people are working hard at justifying Twitter’s existence by morphing it into a business tool. Mike Sansone has an interesting idea over at Converstations about how to use Twitter for finite teams.

Even Technorati’s Buzz TV is getting into the conversation.

Here’s my question. Why?

Are we at a point where we can’t just enjoy it as both a distraction and a diversion? That it’s a link to our friends and colleagues and sometimes they say something interesting and sometimes not? It’s fun. Sometimes its serious and sometimes it silly. In the week that I’ve been using it, my friends have made me laugh out loud and stop and think.

I’m not so sure it needs to be anything more. At least not for me.