Is it really possible to engage with Twitter?

Twitter has probably not been the easiest Web 2.0 application for me to get to grips with. I find the character limit difficult; I seem to spend a lot of time paraphrasing my comments to keep within it. Yet, I maintain that in most cases this is a good thing. I, for one, am too verbose far too often. Increasingly it seems that library users don't have time (or want to make time) for library emails and other notices. Maybe restricting notices to 140 characters where possible would be more effective? That said, I'm not aware that the number of posts I could make in a day is restricted on Twitter. Perhaps I could still, therefore, overload others with numerous uninteresting messages that, worse still, are so brief they're incomprehensible.

“Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.”
PLATO

I like the option to retweet other people's things on my page without having to worry about plagiarism. Using hashtags to unite tweets seems useful and easy too, although I'm yet to see good conversation on Twitter. Commenting on other peoples tweets is simple enough but, as I suspected when I joined, really connecting and delving into topics for meaty debate feels like too much effort when there's hardly space for a sentence in each tweet. Used properly in the right context, I'm sure these sorts of restrictions could be exactly what's required. Twitter is undeniably popular. Perhaps because it caters for this need?