Twitter?

[AmateisGal]

It took me ages to get on Facebook and I'm glad I did - if only because I love to reconnect with so many people from my past. I'm not on it much because it can be a big time waster.

However, I don't want to get involved in Twitter. It's fine for some folks, but not for me. My blog is enough.

 

[Laura Chase]

That's just about exactly what I'd say, too. It's fine for people who have a little excitement in their lives, I guess, but a typical day's twittering from me might look like --

8:07 -- Burned my eggs again. Threw them over the fence into the junkyard. Oooh, a squirrel!

9:20 -- That neighbor kid is walking his dog on my grass. Stupid beagle.

11:11 -- Those hot dogs at Wasses' Wagon smell awful good right now. I want one.

12:32 -- Ack, I wish I hadn't eaten that hot dog.

2:25 -- The cat is sleeping on the kitchen table. Sure looks comfortable. Maybe I should try that.

5:30 -- At work. Popcorn kid is late. I gotta kill that boy, I just gotta. Wonder if that cistern down the street is big enough to hide a body?

10:30 -- Home from work. The shank of the night! Mmmmmyeah, what'll it be -- All Bran or Grape Nuts?

1:00 AM -- That crack in the ceiling just moved. I better sleep downstairs.

And so on ad infinitum.

LizzieMaine, this was awesome and you are funny! I'd follow you on twitter.

The best Twittering isn't about announcing that you've tied your shoes or ordered lunch -- it's about sharing the interesting things you come up with or come across in a day.

For instance, I just tweeted that I'd learned that Mike Nichols is hairless -- he wears a wig and paste-on eyebrows. Did you know that? I didn't.

Mind you, I'm not suggesting that I'm an interesting Twitterer, nor am I terribly prolific -- but there are interesting ones out there, and they don't simply fill you in on how they've spent their day. They point you outward, providing links to interesting stories and challenging web sites.

One's first impression of a new technology -- and I'm as guilty of snap judgments as anyone, so I'm not pointing fingers -- is not always accurate. Most of us don't see the possibilities in a new form of communication at first.

Many scoffed at the telephone when it was introduced. They just didn't see the need for it, and Lord knows there have been many millions of inane and insipid telephone conversations over the decades. But that hasn't rendered the instrument entirely useless.

There's been lots of dreck published on paper, too, since the invention of the printing press, but that doesn't negate the value of that form of communication, either.

Really well spoken, man! :eusa_clap

Neil Gaiman just tweeted this, it might interest all you Twitter haters. lol
http://scienceblogs.com/islandofdoubt/2009/04/why_twitter_is_evil.php

 

[Big Man]

Twitter is the future ...

When I was your age, eight-track tapes were "the future". [huh]

 

[PADDY]

Make a note of this...

And remember you heard it 'here' first! The 'wheel' is the future - believe me. Just keep an eye out for it!!

 

[Marc Chevalier]

The 'wheel' is the future - believe me. Just keep an eye out for it!!

We can't; we're too busy keeping an eye out for tweets.


.

 

[Lady Day]

I have A LOT of friends who twitter, and they keep telling me the same thing:

"You just learn lots of bits of things you never knew."

They keep telling me someone will throw out a quote or a simple fact and you, "just add that to who you are".

I just keep thinking these little micro pieces of knowledge are fast and easy to absorb, but many dont want to take effort to truly invest in a field of study.

Im prolly totally off the game, but I find that fascinating.

LD

 

[Gutshot]

A friend of mine who lives 3000 miles away had a baby yesterday. Thanks to twitter we who don't live close by were able to keep track of what was happening, see pictures after the birth, and generally relate our excitement and congratulate the new parents. 2 days before that one of my best friends who happens to live in another hemisphere was able to announce to all her friends her excitement over just signing a 2 book publishing deal with a major publisher. It's all just another way to communicate with those important to you.

 

[MrNewportCustom]

"You just learn lots of bits of things you never knew."

LD

Maybe I should start one of these accounts, someday. I mean, I have a head chock full of useless information that everyone neds to know. lol

A friend of mine who lives 3000 miles away had a baby yesterday. Thanks to twitter we who don't live close by were able to keep track of what was happening, see pictures after the birth, and generally relate our excitement and congratulate the new parents. 2 days before that one of my best friends who happens to live in another hemisphere was able to announce to all her friends her excitement over just signing a 2 book publishing deal with a major publisher. It's all just another way to communicate with those important to you.

My family and friends do the same thing with something called, I think, email.


Lee

Just havin' my fun.

 

[Lady Day]

This 'Quick Vote' was on CNNs frontpage.

LD

 

[SamMarlowPI]

i'm with Lady Day on this one...

and any others not interested in Twitter...

what do you call a twitter-er? a twit?

yuklolyuklolyuklol

i kill myself...

 

[skyvue]

My family and friends do the same thing with something called, I think, email.

Yes, and it hasn't been all that long since the Luddites among us were insisting that email was a waste of time and a flawed and inferior form of communication.

Some things never change.

 

[Tomasso]

Yes, and it hasn't been all that long since the Luddites among us were insisting that email was a waste of time and a flawed and inferior form of communication.

Some things never change.

Seriously, I can be telephoned, snail mailed, E-Mailed , texted, faxed and PM'ed.....But here I am being branded a Luddite because I've finally said STOP! :eusa_doh:

 

[MrNewportCustom]

what do you call a twitter-er? a twit?

The creator of Twitter (I forget his name at the moment) is good friends with Bill Handel of KFI 640 AM, here in Los Angeles, and he's said as much while on Bill's show. Jokingly, of course.

Yes, and it hasn't been all that long since the Luddites among us were insisting that email was a waste of time and a flawed and inferior form of communication.

Some things never change.

Yup! And sometimes sooner than later. Thomas Edison took his drawing of "a machine that records and reproduces the human voice" to a model builder and asked him to build a working model. The guy said, "Impossible! You'll never make that thing work." Edison asked him why he thought it would never work. The model maker said, "because no one has ever built a machine that could talk." Edison talked him into making it, anyway.

The model worked on the first try.


Lee

 

[Laura Chase]

Seriously, I can be telephoned, snail mailed, E-Mailed , texted, faxed and PM'ed.....But here I am being branded a Luddite because I've finally said STOP! :eusa_doh:

That is a personal choice you make, and that is perfectly fine. I get "cyber psychosis" more than often, and when I do, I cut everything off and return when I'm ready. It's perfectly fine and understandable that you don't like to be so connected.

And Tomasso, this is the most reasonable argument I have heard against using twitter.

But - and I'm not saying you are doing this, but obviously some people here are - it's not reasonable, on this totally personal basis and because of personal issues, to judge someone else for twittering.

 

[Laura Chase]

This 'Quick Vote' was on CNNs frontpage.

LD

What does this say, exactly? Who is CNN's target audience? (seriously, I don't know) The young and hip? lol Just kidding. Now, if somebody had tweeted that this poll was there... I will do that just now!

And, on another note, take a look at Twistori. Can anyone other than me see the beauty of this?

 

[Feraud]

If I may pull these two comments out of context for a second..

One's first impression of a new technology -- and I'm as guilty of snap judgments as anyone, so I'm not pointing fingers -- is not always accurate. Most of us don't see the possibilities in a new form of communication at first.

Yes, and it hasn't been all that long since the Luddites among us were insisting that email was a waste of time and a flawed and inferior form of communication.

Some things never change.

The issue many people have with certain technologies is not that is exists or a refusal to use them. It is the apparent overdependence to blog, twitter, and update their MySpace and Facebook accounts with every aspect of their mediocre social life and next amazing thought.

 

[skyvue]

Yes, and for decades, parents have bemoaned their teenagers' insistence on spending hours on the phone discussing minutia with their friends.

It was ever thus.

I'm not trying to sway anyone to use Twitter -- I use it only a little myself, though I'm experimenting with it a bit more of late to explore its viral communication capabilities -- but there's a dismissive, judgmental tone in many of the posts in this thread, and I'm just pointing out that that same attitude crops up virtually any time a new form of communication is made available.

The fact that Twitter is new doesn't automatically make it a major step forward, but then neither was blog software. There was little, if anything, in blog software that couldn't have been achieved in other ways on a regular old web site, but something about the way blogs worked appealed to people and they became popular. The same may be happening with Twitter.

 

[skyvue]

All that said, "Luddites" was probably too strong a term for the point I was trying to make, and I apologize if my poor word choice offended. "Naysayers," perhaps, or "doubters" might have fit more aptly.

My point was simply that there are always those who don't see value in a new form of communication, and though they are sometimes proven right in their assessment, just as often it turns out that they were simply unable to imagine the uses other people would find for that new tool.

 

[Feraud]

And for the record I looove my Iphone.

 

[Zemke Fan]

What's the fun...

... obviously some people here are - it's not reasonable, on this totally personal basis and because of personal issues, to judge someone else for twittering.

... of being part of this forum if you can't judge others? [huh]

I am an early adopter. For example, I've had my own personal web site for over 10 years. But, mark my words, this whole Twitter experience will be viewed in hindsight as nothing more than another technodiversionary negatorytool to cut your life into ever more micromeaningless pieces.

With everything else that competes for our short and getting shorter attention spans do we really want to check our cells hundreds of times a day for 140 character tweets? As the snotty (snooty) maître d' said to Ferris, Cameron, and Sloane: "I weep for the future."