Real quote from the internet: “If you follow me on twitter, I tweet about what I’m eating/drinking almost daily.”
Protip: NO ONE CARES.
I know everyone and their sister have embraced Twitter, but I hate it. HATE IT. I gave it a try for a few months, and all I saw was that it reduced all of the intelligent people I know to the most mundane details they could eke out in 140 characters or less. And generally, after someone has taken up Twitter, they stop writing blog posts, they just feed Twitter, like a bunch of blurbs about their sandwich and their coffee and how their bus is late are supposed to replace the thought-provoking things they used to write about, the interesting details, the moments of their lives that it takes more than 140 characters to express.
If all we have to talk about are the things we eat and drink, is it really WORTH talking about?
Twitter is only good for this: http://twitter.com/shitmydadsays
Oh and my sister’s job, which partly centers around putting stuff on Twitter for tourists and answering questions, so I have to give it props for that, though. Other than that: I can’t do it because I can apparently only pay attention to two social networking/blogging/whatever places at max.
I will acknowledge that there are probably some uses of twitter that I haven’t seen, but all I’ve seen is the most boring shit about people whom I KNOW are interesting.
being an interesting person doesn’t make someone an interesting writer. quite a few of my real life friends i ignore on facebook, etc. because they post really boring shit.
many of the people i read regularly on twitter are people i don’t know. no one i read on twitter posts regularly about things they eat and drink or even much about their mundane everyday life in general.
How about–I’ve seen interesting people on LJ turn into uninteresting people on twitter?
Maybe I’m a bit too close to this issue: my social life in this area stems from three places–DigiPen, Pegasus Pizza and LJ. Two places if you consider that someone from DigiPen took me to Pegasus for the first time. People that I didn’t know at all a few years ago, I came to know through their writing on LJ and I really feel that over time I HAVE come to know them better than most people–because I have access to their thoughts, their hopes, their dreams, their frustrations, the things that make them laugh and cry. So MUCH of that is chopped out on Twitter. It just makes me wonder that if I’d started there instead of here, would I know these people at all? Would I care to?
i’ve met a couple random people from twitter and they’ve been awesome. but it is true that some people who are good post bullshit on twitter.
i’ve met a couple random people from twitter and they’ve been awesome. but it is true that some people who are good post bullshit on twitter.
How about–I’ve seen interesting people on LJ turn into uninteresting people on twitter?
Maybe I’m a bit too close to this issue: my social life in this area stems from three places–DigiPen, Pegasus Pizza and LJ. Two places if you consider that someone from DigiPen took me to Pegasus for the first time. People that I didn’t know at all a few years ago, I came to know through their writing on LJ and I really feel that over time I HAVE come to know them better than most people–because I have access to their thoughts, their hopes, their dreams, their frustrations, the things that make them laugh and cry. So MUCH of that is chopped out on Twitter. It just makes me wonder that if I’d started there instead of here, would I know these people at all? Would I care to?
being an interesting person doesn’t make someone an interesting writer. quite a few of my real life friends i ignore on facebook, etc. because they post really boring shit.
many of the people i read regularly on twitter are people i don’t know. no one i read on twitter posts regularly about things they eat and drink or even much about their mundane everyday life in general.
I will acknowledge that there are probably some uses of twitter that I haven’t seen, but all I’ve seen is the most boring shit about people whom I KNOW are interesting.
Twitter is only good for this: http://twitter.com/shitmydadsays
Oh and my sister’s job, which partly centers around putting stuff on Twitter for tourists and answering questions, so I have to give it props for that, though. Other than that: I can’t do it because I can apparently only pay attention to two social networking/blogging/whatever places at max.
Twitter annoys the living hell out of me. Gabe and Tycho said it very well, but I also found another link a few months back that amuses me.
http://current.com/items/89891774_twouble-with-twitters.htm
cheers,
Phil
Those are both excellent. 😀
Those are both excellent. 😀
Twitter annoys the living hell out of me. Gabe and Tycho said it very well, but I also found another link a few months back that amuses me.
http://current.com/items/89891774_twouble-with-twitters.htm
cheers,
Phil
I 100% agree with you. I won’t join it, for the reasons you stated, and have been sad to see a significant drop off of my friends making substantive journal posts in favour of updating how many times in a row they sneezed and which breakfast pastry they chose today.
~Aramada
It’s one thing if they’re too busy to make substantive posts but entirely another if Twitter has encouraged them to shoot off whatever is at the forefront of their lobe so often that they can’t even concentrate to write something with substance.
It’s one thing if they’re too busy to make substantive posts but entirely another if Twitter has encouraged them to shoot off whatever is at the forefront of their lobe so often that they can’t even concentrate to write something with substance.
if you haven’t joined it, how do you know that they’re posting mundane boring stuff? 😉
i feel that there is an art to writing something in 140 characters in the same way that there is an art to making a haiku interesting vs. awkward. it is true that many, many people using twitter are not using it in a good way. but you could say that about livejournal or about anything in life really
Because several of my friends have, and they’ve let me take a look at their standard feed. Not to mention that said friends also complain about the signal to noise ratio.
~Aramada
Because several of my friends have, and they’ve let me take a look at their standard feed. Not to mention that said friends also complain about the signal to noise ratio.
~Aramada
if you haven’t joined it, how do you know that they’re posting mundane boring stuff? 😉
i feel that there is an art to writing something in 140 characters in the same way that there is an art to making a haiku interesting vs. awkward. it is true that many, many people using twitter are not using it in a good way. but you could say that about livejournal or about anything in life really
I 100% agree with you. I won’t join it, for the reasons you stated, and have been sad to see a significant drop off of my friends making substantive journal posts in favour of updating how many times in a row they sneezed and which breakfast pastry they chose today.
~Aramada
I only use twitter in the “search” way, so if I’m curious about what “the buzz” is on a technology, it is a good place to check that by searching. During PAX, it was interesting to see what people thought was tweetworthy.
Twitter may be useful for news items when some guy with a cell phone is out somewhere cool and something interesting happens.
That being said, I think most people use twitter as their “vacation slideshow to the world,” which is no less boring than the old slideshows, where your uncle would show you interminable questions of Yellowstone park, and him standing next to landmark signs. The difference is that now your uncle can do that and no one has to watch, they can just quietly pull out their iPhone and post tweets about how boring it is.
Oh, I do find twitter handy for when it looks like some website is down (gmail) and I’m wondering if everyone else is hosed.
http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com
http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com
Oh, I do find twitter handy for when it looks like some website is down (gmail) and I’m wondering if everyone else is hosed.
I only use twitter in the “search” way, so if I’m curious about what “the buzz” is on a technology, it is a good place to check that by searching. During PAX, it was interesting to see what people thought was tweetworthy.
Twitter may be useful for news items when some guy with a cell phone is out somewhere cool and something interesting happens.
That being said, I think most people use twitter as their “vacation slideshow to the world,” which is no less boring than the old slideshows, where your uncle would show you interminable questions of Yellowstone park, and him standing next to landmark signs. The difference is that now your uncle can do that and no one has to watch, they can just quietly pull out their iPhone and post tweets about how boring it is.
I’m not doing it, but I’m also not on Facebook, which I think is halfway between Twitter and substance.
I’m trying to picture guns and zombies on Twitter…
“RT@aquariumspast OMG LIKE TOTALLY SHOOTING A GUN WITH SUM OTHR GRLS! #FUNWITHGUNS”
There are no zombies! Where are the zombies?!
That’s what I mean about things being lost due to character constraints.
That’s what I mean about things being lost due to character constraints.
There are no zombies! Where are the zombies?!
“RT@aquariumspast OMG LIKE TOTALLY SHOOTING A GUN WITH SUM OTHR GRLS! #FUNWITHGUNS”
I’m not doing it, but I’m also not on Facebook, which I think is halfway between Twitter and substance.
I’m trying to picture guns and zombies on Twitter…
I write fiction on it. Extremely short fiction. It’s fun.
Then you are one of the twitterfolk I’m *not* talking about here. 🙂
Then you are one of the twitterfolk I’m *not* talking about here. 🙂
I write fiction on it. Extremely short fiction. It’s fun.
How are twitters different from blog posts except the length?
I mean, 99% of blogs are about what someone eats or drinks or took a picture of while they were on a walk or selling something or etc etc etc. Just longer.
How much of the beauty of language is lost when it’s truncated to 140 characters?
How much of the beauty of language is lost when one is constained to the rigorous format of a sonnet?
In slightly less snarky format, this article says some things I rather like about Twitter.
That being said, in the interest of full disclosure I should mention that I’m pretty much of your opinion with regards to Twitter and was just playing devil’s advocate.
It’s one thing to work at saying more with less, it’s another to strip communication down so utterly that it becomes free of personality and expression.
It’s one thing to work at saying more with less, it’s another to strip communication down so utterly that it becomes free of personality and expression.
In slightly less snarky format, this article says some things I rather like about Twitter.
That being said, in the interest of full disclosure I should mention that I’m pretty much of your opinion with regards to Twitter and was just playing devil’s advocate.
How much of the beauty of language is lost when one is constained to the rigorous format of a sonnet?
How much of the beauty of language is lost when it’s truncated to 140 characters?
How are twitters different from blog posts except the length?
I mean, 99% of blogs are about what someone eats or drinks or took a picture of while they were on a walk or selling something or etc etc etc. Just longer.
To be fair, though… most of my Blog Posts are about food and/or foods effects upon my digestive system. Twitter, should I choose to adopt it, would limit the amount of feces in my average post.
Not that I’ll ever do Twitter again. Facebook is mundane enough for me!
I can’t say I’ve seen you post a whole lot about food lately. Or feces. For which I am grateful.
I can’t say I’ve seen you post a whole lot about food lately. Or feces. For which I am grateful.
To be fair, though… most of my Blog Posts are about food and/or foods effects upon my digestive system. Twitter, should I choose to adopt it, would limit the amount of feces in my average post.
Not that I’ll ever do Twitter again. Facebook is mundane enough for me!
I point you to both this LJ entry and this flash movie.
Both of which are apropos.
I could see it happening. And it makes me so sad.
*spins ring*
🙁
I could see it happening. And it makes me so sad.
*spins ring*
🙁
I point you to both this LJ entry and this flash movie.
Both of which are apropos.
I would just like to point out that I find eating and drinking to be a topic worthy of a great deal of discussion.
I know that isn’t what you meant but I felt the need to defend one of my favorite things to think and blog about. 🙂
There is a clear difference between the magic you work in the kitchen and “Soda and a burger for lunch today.”
There is a clear difference between the magic you work in the kitchen and “Soda and a burger for lunch today.”
I would just like to point out that I find eating and drinking to be a topic worthy of a great deal of discussion.
I know that isn’t what you meant but I felt the need to defend one of my favorite things to think and blog about. 🙂
Unrepentantly guilty on all counts — except perhaps the assumption that I am of interest beyond what I tweet. 😉
I’ve long ago decided that Twitter is one of those things that some people will enjoy, others won’t. I happen to be in the set of people who enjoy it, but the _best_ thing about it is that if you don’t like it…well, you don’t have to pay attention to it*.
I do at least make some slight attempt at not letting Twitter _entirely_ kill my over-140-character blog posts, though these days I don’t always have time for the longer, more involved, more thoughtworthy posts, and the occasional Twitter blurb of whatever stupid thing is bouncing off of my brain is about all I can manage. I like doing them when I can, but it’s just not a huge priority right now.
That, and I’m just running low on interesting details and moments of my life that are both worthy of sharing and something I don’t mind blasting across the ‘net.
So…sorry if I’m one of those that annoy you. Gonna keep right on doing it, though! 😀
* Except for the _really_ annoying people like me, who feed their Twitter stream to their LiveJournal so that you CAN’T ESCAPE! Bastards.
You at least have something to say in your tweets. Half of the ones that post to my LJ feed are all @ someone I don’t know so it’s just noise to me.
You at least have something to say in your tweets. Half of the ones that post to my LJ feed are all @ someone I don’t know so it’s just noise to me.
Unrepentantly guilty on all counts — except perhaps the assumption that I am of interest beyond what I tweet. 😉
I’ve long ago decided that Twitter is one of those things that some people will enjoy, others won’t. I happen to be in the set of people who enjoy it, but the _best_ thing about it is that if you don’t like it…well, you don’t have to pay attention to it*.
I do at least make some slight attempt at not letting Twitter _entirely_ kill my over-140-character blog posts, though these days I don’t always have time for the longer, more involved, more thoughtworthy posts, and the occasional Twitter blurb of whatever stupid thing is bouncing off of my brain is about all I can manage. I like doing them when I can, but it’s just not a huge priority right now.
That, and I’m just running low on interesting details and moments of my life that are both worthy of sharing and something I don’t mind blasting across the ‘net.
So…sorry if I’m one of those that annoy you. Gonna keep right on doing it, though! 😀
* Except for the _really_ annoying people like me, who feed their Twitter stream to their LiveJournal so that you CAN’T ESCAPE! Bastards.
i could not POSSIBLY agree more.
i use twitter a bit, mainly because i know so so many people on there, but i can never stick with it for more then a few days at a time. i just do **not** get the appeal. so much mindless drivel, and no one responds to anything so i dont see what the point is at all. the only thing i see that is useful about it is if you want to see where people are (kinda like Dodgeball was if you ever used that a few years ago). So it’d be kinda cool to tweet and say “heading to xyz bar tonight, join if you like!” or things like that, but /meh. still. i kinda want twitter to die.
It really feels like you’re shouting in to an endless void…to what purpose? Attention whoring in 140 characters? I like to do my attention whoring in long format, thank you.
agree
agree
It really feels like you’re shouting in to an endless void…to what purpose? Attention whoring in 140 characters? I like to do my attention whoring in long format, thank you.
i could not POSSIBLY agree more.
i use twitter a bit, mainly because i know so so many people on there, but i can never stick with it for more then a few days at a time. i just do **not** get the appeal. so much mindless drivel, and no one responds to anything so i dont see what the point is at all. the only thing i see that is useful about it is if you want to see where people are (kinda like Dodgeball was if you ever used that a few years ago). So it’d be kinda cool to tweet and say “heading to xyz bar tonight, join if you like!” or things like that, but /meh. still. i kinda want twitter to die.
I keep trying to just ignore it until it goes away. It will, eventually. I hope.
I don’t know, the more something encourages vapidity, the more staying power it seems to have.
i don’t find that twitter encourages vapidity. if anything, humanity encourages vapidity by paying attention to people who have vapid twitter feeds and ignoring the many who don’t 😉
here are some of the things twitter does well that i feel livejournal and other services do not.
– meetups with people you know
many of my friends get tweets to SMS and send tweets by SMS. they don’t have iphones or other pdaphones. so they say things like “happy hour at linda’s. 6pm. who’s in?”
now on an iphone, that kind of thing is pretty unnecessary. i just pick everybody i want to message and it sends it as a group. another option is swaggle. but swaggle wants you to set up the groups in advance and have them be the same people. if you’re someone without a keyboardphone and you know exactly who you want to send a mass message to but it differs from the swaggle group or something, it takes seriously forever to hunt and peck that crap out. it’s massively faster to just type a single tweet and it hits everyone.
– meetups with people you don’t know
i travel a lot. sometimes i’m in another city for a music festival or some other kind of event and i’m by myself. i feel like hanging out with someone and feel reasonably sure that whoever’s at the event i’m at will be cool. but i don’t know them. so i send out a tweet asking who wants to step out for a drink. now i have a crew of 5 random people, and they’re generally relatively young and techy and interesting.
– getting a quick answer to a question by a combination of people you know and people you don’t know.
currently 743 people put up with my boring twitter feed. many of them are people i don’t know. so when i ask a question on any topic, whether it’s where the good thai food is located in north seattle, a good website for finding video game reviews, etc. i get lots of replies within minutes. this is especially helpful when travelling and in a place i’m not familiar with.
– finding out which of my friends are going to what show
i could ask them all individually, but it’s a lot faster to say hey, sunny day real estate on saturday, who wants to carpool or whatever.
i don’t find that twitter encourages vapidity. if anything, humanity encourages vapidity by paying attention to people who have vapid twitter feeds and ignoring the many who don’t 😉
here are some of the things twitter does well that i feel livejournal and other services do not.
– meetups with people you know
many of my friends get tweets to SMS and send tweets by SMS. they don’t have iphones or other pdaphones. so they say things like “happy hour at linda’s. 6pm. who’s in?”
now on an iphone, that kind of thing is pretty unnecessary. i just pick everybody i want to message and it sends it as a group. another option is swaggle. but swaggle wants you to set up the groups in advance and have them be the same people. if you’re someone without a keyboardphone and you know exactly who you want to send a mass message to but it differs from the swaggle group or something, it takes seriously forever to hunt and peck that crap out. it’s massively faster to just type a single tweet and it hits everyone.
– meetups with people you don’t know
i travel a lot. sometimes i’m in another city for a music festival or some other kind of event and i’m by myself. i feel like hanging out with someone and feel reasonably sure that whoever’s at the event i’m at will be cool. but i don’t know them. so i send out a tweet asking who wants to step out for a drink. now i have a crew of 5 random people, and they’re generally relatively young and techy and interesting.
– getting a quick answer to a question by a combination of people you know and people you don’t know.
currently 743 people put up with my boring twitter feed. many of them are people i don’t know. so when i ask a question on any topic, whether it’s where the good thai food is located in north seattle, a good website for finding video game reviews, etc. i get lots of replies within minutes. this is especially helpful when travelling and in a place i’m not familiar with.
– finding out which of my friends are going to what show
i could ask them all individually, but it’s a lot faster to say hey, sunny day real estate on saturday, who wants to carpool or whatever.
I don’t know, the more something encourages vapidity, the more staying power it seems to have.
I keep trying to just ignore it until it goes away. It will, eventually. I hope.
I’m a web designer/developer, so I use Twitter mostly to get updates about my field – new tutorials and articles worth reading are posted constantly. I don’t get the obsession with following celebrities on Twitter though. My husband uses Twitter only to follow people like Amy Adams and Shaq, and even though he knows that some of them are fake, he says, “But I still want to know what they have to say about their day!” Makes no goddamn sense to me.
hahah especially since most celebrities are not celebrities due to their beautiful minds.
hahah especially since most celebrities are not celebrities due to their beautiful minds.
you’re getting at a point that gets missed: the twitter founder called it the nerve center we didn’t know we needed. i know about stocktwits, and the simple convention of referring to asset symbols with $ like $MSFT unifies a network that can move at the speed of the market and possibly also be useful. in the end, we need a single nerve system for information.
i am very pleased by the twitter API so far. “log in using twitter” is likely to grow as an authentication system to 3rd party sites, and new applications for real-time data might thrive there.
you’re getting at a point that gets missed: the twitter founder called it the nerve center we didn’t know we needed. i know about stocktwits, and the simple convention of referring to asset symbols with $ like $MSFT unifies a network that can move at the speed of the market and possibly also be useful. in the end, we need a single nerve system for information.
i am very pleased by the twitter API so far. “log in using twitter” is likely to grow as an authentication system to 3rd party sites, and new applications for real-time data might thrive there.
I’m a web designer/developer, so I use Twitter mostly to get updates about my field – new tutorials and articles worth reading are posted constantly. I don’t get the obsession with following celebrities on Twitter though. My husband uses Twitter only to follow people like Amy Adams and Shaq, and even though he knows that some of them are fake, he says, “But I still want to know what they have to say about their day!” Makes no goddamn sense to me.
I hate it too!
I hate it too!
Devin subscribed me to it and i never went on it, never wrote 1 single letter… I just dont think anyone cares about what i eat, drink, when i sleep and when i take a shit…i can see its fun to write short little updates but thats what i do with my facebook status thingy anyway… I dont see what the fuss is all about…its almost like everyone becomig paparrazzis or something. I dont know… Who am i to judge since i never used it j guess.
Devin subscribed me to it and i never went on it, never wrote 1 single letter… I just dont think anyone cares about what i eat, drink, when i sleep and when i take a shit…i can see its fun to write short little updates but thats what i do with my facebook status thingy anyway… I dont see what the fuss is all about…its almost like everyone becomig paparrazzis or something. I dont know… Who am i to judge since i never used it j guess.
I hate it too! We have one for the gallery I volunteer at, but it sort of makes since as a way to promote shows and events. Not that I’d follow it, but at least the 140 limit sort of makes since that way…
no, no, I can’t do it. I still hate the SHIT out of twitter
I hate it too! We have one for the gallery I volunteer at, but it sort of makes since as a way to promote shows and events. Not that I’d follow it, but at least the 140 limit sort of makes since that way…
no, no, I can’t do it. I still hate the SHIT out of twitter