I love Twitter. I don't tweet (post to Twitter) a lot, and I don't obsessively check for new tweets all days — especially at work, when I'm too busy. But I love the concept, I love participating when I can, and I love the expansion of my personal universe into th twitterverse (although I do have mixed feelings about Twitter-derived words that come with that territory).

Not everyone loves Twitter. Fine. I'm not into RPG (role-playing games) or any of a zillion other options available online for fun and friendship. I rarely chat or IM apart from Twitter (and, less frequently since I post to thru my Twitter account, Facebook). But the difference between me and a lot of the non-lovers of Twitter is that I keep my mouth shut about those things I don't participate in. Two good reasons for my silence: One, just because I don't enjoy or "get" something doesn't means it's not a thing of great value. Two, it's likely any criticism from me would be pure ignorance.

In other words, I would be showing the world how stupid I can be by blathering on about how stupid something else is, something I know little about.

Twitter is a great concept, but to make it work, you have to do a couple of important things. First, you have to follow interesting people. The cool thing about Twitter is that, unlike Facebook, you don't need a person's permission to follow them. I didn't need Neil Gaiman's permission to add him (@neilhimself) as someone I follow. I simply log in to my account, locate his page and click the "follow" button. In the same way I have added Lance Armstrong, comics/graphic novel writer extraordinaire Warren Ellis, my brother's tv website for the Kansas City Star, TV Barn, a bunch of friends and some folks I'd have never met otherwise.

What makes the 94 people I am following enjoyable is that most of them have something worthwhile to say. Not all of them, and not all the time. I usually don't care when Lance is having a business meeting, but to get this thoughts following a day on the bike, whether training or surviving a grueling day at the Giro, is fun and sometimes edifying. It's cool to get a blow-by-blow description of what one of the world's great writers goes through on a book tour, especially when, like Neil Gaiman, they have a great sense of humor about it (the man's a writer; he can't help but write, and write well, about anything in his life). The there are people I know of through Twitter, an odd arrangement of folks I have literally stumbled upon but enjoy reading about the events of their day as they share them in 140-character bursts.

Which, I think , is the stumbling point for those who don't "get" Twitter: You have to be able to communicate something meaningful in very little space. 140 characters is not arbitrary; it has to do with limits on text messges very few devices have to worry about anymore. But, like a haiku or sonnet, the form brings not merely restrictions but the means to focus thought and creativity into a very challenging format. And let's face it: There's a lot of people out there who can use a lot of words to say almost nothing, and not that many who can precis their thoughts into an interesting Tweet.

I love writing a thought into Twitter, something important enough for me to want to share with those who've decided they want to read my tweets, and hit character 140 exactly — without editing. No faike edits (skipping an apostrophe or vowels, although on occasion I will skip the final period), just a burst of typing that is 140 exactly. Not the same as solving world hunger, but it's a nice accomplishment, in its place in the world.

Almost no one I follow writes about their meals, their laundry, the minutae of their day. (Actually I get more of that from Lance than anyone, but given that's he one of the world's great athletes and a hugely busy person, it's interesting to see that life going on. I'm looking forward to following him through France next month.) Instead, I read about a friend's struggle to produce her online (and soon, hard copy) novel; a woman in Eugene struggling to figure out her life, including how can she ever get pregnant; a woman in California trying to raise two small boys, have a successful marriage, and work her career into it all; the progress of the GLBT struggle in Oregon and across the country; HuffPost's Jason Linkins; the brilliant Felicia Day from Dr Horrible and The Guild (who has replied to me a few times, which is damn fun); and I could add another dozen or two to this list — Mult Co Chair Ted Wheeler actually appears to do his own tweeting, whereas I think many, but not all, of Sam Adam's tweets are done by staff.

Oh, my one friend who does tweet a lot about food is great. He's an awesome amateur cook, so he's sharing not menus but recipes and incentives. Me makes his list of ingredients and how he's using them absolutely enjoyable.

But, again, this isn't for everyone, and I'm cool with that. What I'm not cool with is people who aren't cool that Twitter isn't for them. Yes, it's moderately obnoxious that "follow me on Twitter" has become de riguer to show one's coolness. I am not going to follow Liann Hanson or a multitude of others (although I just paused in writing this to follow Wait Wait Don't Tell Me because I love that show. But it's no more obnoxious than knowing a show like "Two and a Half Men" exists. I don't follow lame tweeters (I dropped two this morning) just as I don't watch tv shows I consider lame. It's pretty easy to ignore. It doesn't require running down the entire enterprise, especially when, for many people, it's a worthwhile part of their day.

So, to take the old phrase "Those who can't do, teach" (and those who can't teach, teach PE...) and turn it around: You get the title of this post. If you don't get or like Twitter, fine. To demonstrate that you don't like or get it, enjoy a nice hot cup of "shut the fuck up". Your opinion is fine, but to what end? If you are incapable of distilling a thought down to 140 characters, or if you have no desire to do so, then Twitter is not for you. But it is for me, and I find it to be worthwhile. And guess what? I have a life outside the twitterverse. Everyone I follow is out in the world doing things. That's why their tweets are so interesting. They aren't sitting around the computer all day (ok, some are, but that's part of their work); they are leading busy, meaningful lives. They choose to share their experiences online via Twitter, and that makes my own busy, meaningful life just a little bit larger, a little bit richer.

Learn to make your life meaningful before you run down those who enjoy something you lack the capacity to even understand.