What do you say when someone asks “What is Twitter?”

How do you answer when someone who has little understanding of social media asks the question What is Twitter?” How do you explain that it is statements of 140 characters?

Alan Levine of  CogDogBlog was asked by his 80 year old Mom  “Can you explain this ‘twitter’ thing to me over lunch?’.

@CogDog could not resist the temptation to tweet it.

One of his friends suggested that he record the conversation.

So at lunch time, @cogdog sent out a repeat request, and first sat his Mom down at the computer to watch the Common Craft Twitter in Plain English video and then turned on the recorder to capture our conversation. Tweets were coming in as they were talking.

When you have a few minutes to spare, check out the audio of this conversation at CogDogBlog Twitter in Mom English.

You can also read the tweet responses.