I’ve been thinking a lot about twitter lately, mostly because its been coming up in various places (blogs, radio, tv…) and I keep asking myself, “self, is this just another trend like facebook and myspace – or is this something that will become a lasting part of daily life?” Unfortunately, Self is a very poor listener.
Here’s the thing. People describe Twitter as micro-blogging but I’ve always seen it as a glorified chat room – some hybrid of Forum and IM’ing. But now I’m not so sure. First off, its very popular which means it connects people the way the internet should. Second, I don’t always want to write a full blog post. Sometimes, I just want to say “I can’t believe who they sent home this week on [insert reality tv show here]” That’s not enough for a blog post but its enough to have a conversation. Finally, a lot of SEO types have shared how social networks really help drive traffic to your website. By reaching out to others, you expose them to your site. They may not stay, but at least they know about it. Of course this isn’t some marketing ploy. Its a side-effect of connecting with other people. If you are trying to manipulate them, they will not respond. – and frankly, social skills is something I lack. Not that I’m anti-social, I just am not the social butterfly.
So what do I do? If I sign up for Twitter, I may get addicted and still not have any followers. But maybe its the outlet I need to express myself without having to explain myself. Does that make sense? Sometimes I want a conversation, a dialogue – not a monologue. So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to write a series of tweet-like statements to see if;
1) I enjoy the format
2) I can stick to the 140 character limit
3) Anyone would want to “follow” me.
I just realized that Syndrome lived on Nomanisan Island – as in No man is an Island.
We’ve been watching the Roswell TV series on DVD and I know why they canceled it – Liz Parker
I can’t believe how messed up the LEED website has been the past couple of days. I think they will have to extend the deadline again.
While writing this post, the suggested “tags” have had some interesting choices – how is Britney Spears related to anything before this line?
Hopefully these are more exciting than “Archshrk is going potty” and “So and So is bored..”
only funnier that you can “share” your post on Twitter.
would that be like googling google, if you tweet a tweet?
trick or tweet? I dont’ know.
I actually signed up for Twitter, if for no other reason than to prove it has no moral value.
With the exception of one vague post from one vague person I’m following, @wilw (Wil Wheaton, the guy from Star Trek: TNG.) pointing out that the April Fool’s Day Woot.Com was a Bag of Crap with $1,000,000 shipping … (I laughed at the whole page. price negotiations,f or only $300K naked women parachute to your house with your BoC cleverly hidden on their body. ) … it’s mostly been illogical to follow.
So far i liken Twitter to be much like a Social Cellphone. You have access to hear both parts of the conversation, but only if you’re willing to follow both people involved. Otherwise, you only ever get to listen to replies from the person you’re following which really makes it illogical to see responses like:
@bobthedwarf: Yeah. I know what you mean! That’s awesome.
…what’s awesome? What the hell did Bob say?
Now i’ve got to go follow bob, just to see what bob said, to see why @joe thought @bob was so funny. and in a few cases, I found that @bob was telling @joe about something that @mike said to @phil in regards to @adam, so in order to truly understand what the [censored] was so [censored] awesome, i’ve now got to follow like 6 people for a single [censored] sentence.
It gets even worse if you get to the bigger people (some actual “stars” use Twitter, apparently.) … because then you’re following 4 dozen people for a single sentence before you know it.
I just don’t have the effort to keep following more and more people just to understand a particular line.
Excellent point Steve. I noticed that disconnect when I was looking at other people’s tweets.
Oh, and I totally fell for the BoC joke.
I don’t have Twitter nor do I have any urge to get it. I have enough issues keeping up with blogging. I do have a Facebook account and have been on it more lately, mostly because it is faster to check things out and I know 90% of the people on it so there is some attachment. Good luck Twittering!!