I don't get Twitter
Twitter doesn't work for me - I don't mean I have some bizzare cookie issue or the fact I sometimes use SeaMonkey as my browser causes it to have issues - what I mean is I just don't get it.
You seem to have to live your life constantly in Twitterland and have multiple conversations going on left right and centre. I struggle to post anything in 140 characters or less, no doubt some would say that is because I use verbose language and style. Guilty as charged probably however for me the setting of context before saying "this stinks" or "this is great" is important. Just look recently at how many people have got into trouble with "out of context" tweets - the Diane Abbot one recently was an interesting example. Personally Diane in isolation your comment was offensive to me. You say it was taken out of context - but you only have 140 characters, the conversation flow in Twitter is difficult to see and anyway you still implied that White people (huge and offensive generalisation) are all racist - which is to me offensive. It is a minefield I accept but the number of times Twitter says to me - "You'll have to be more clever" - er no, frankly I can't say what I want to say in 140 characters I don't believe that has anything to do with my level of intelligence!
It is useful for some information coming to me - I have feeds from bands and stuff but frankly if they haven't posted in the few hours prior to my twice a week foray to have a look then they miss me. I use RSS feeds into Google or Facebook for much more of that. I do get some useful stuff seeing how my employer presents various aspects of it's work externally and given much of our target audience is the "switched on younger generation" (Hells teeth, that makes me sound like I'm some dodery old fool... that is rhetroical that one btw) it is useful to see that presentation.
I use it to push out the occasional link and to promote my music but I don't think my 120ish follows are the best target necessarily for that... and that brings me to the real crux of Twitter... who are these people? Why are they following me? Some have musical interests, some I know personally, a couple of business associates who use it for work stuff - I don't see any need for me on that - a daily tweet about Service Delivery Management in support Research IT at a major London university (the title is probably more than 140 chars!) and already everyone is half asleep - hey you at the back wake up I'm getting to the posts punchline for what it is worth. Here are the ones that really baffle me though
DumpsterDealTwt - Dumpster Deal Tweets
Great dumpster saving deals with daily tweet updates for all the deals in your area so you dont miss a beat
HullVoucherScrt Hull Voucher Secrets
Hull Voucher Secrets at 50-90% off retail
Hull Voucher Secrets?! As the youngsters say in their txts, tweets and status updates WTF! I don't live anywhere near Hull, nor do any of my followers I don't believe, anyway Hull or voucher savings schemes don't feature in my irregular less than 140 character posts... Remember that they chose to follow me. Why? I just don't get it!
You seem to have to live your life constantly in Twitterland and have multiple conversations going on left right and centre. I struggle to post anything in 140 characters or less, no doubt some would say that is because I use verbose language and style. Guilty as charged probably however for me the setting of context before saying "this stinks" or "this is great" is important. Just look recently at how many people have got into trouble with "out of context" tweets - the Diane Abbot one recently was an interesting example. Personally Diane in isolation your comment was offensive to me. You say it was taken out of context - but you only have 140 characters, the conversation flow in Twitter is difficult to see and anyway you still implied that White people (huge and offensive generalisation) are all racist - which is to me offensive. It is a minefield I accept but the number of times Twitter says to me - "You'll have to be more clever" - er no, frankly I can't say what I want to say in 140 characters I don't believe that has anything to do with my level of intelligence!
It is useful for some information coming to me - I have feeds from bands and stuff but frankly if they haven't posted in the few hours prior to my twice a week foray to have a look then they miss me. I use RSS feeds into Google or Facebook for much more of that. I do get some useful stuff seeing how my employer presents various aspects of it's work externally and given much of our target audience is the "switched on younger generation" (Hells teeth, that makes me sound like I'm some dodery old fool... that is rhetroical that one btw) it is useful to see that presentation.
I use it to push out the occasional link and to promote my music but I don't think my 120ish follows are the best target necessarily for that... and that brings me to the real crux of Twitter... who are these people? Why are they following me? Some have musical interests, some I know personally, a couple of business associates who use it for work stuff - I don't see any need for me on that - a daily tweet about Service Delivery Management in support Research IT at a major London university (the title is probably more than 140 chars!) and already everyone is half asleep - hey you at the back wake up I'm getting to the posts punchline for what it is worth. Here are the ones that really baffle me though
DumpsterDealTwt - Dumpster Deal Tweets
Great dumpster saving deals with daily tweet updates for all the deals in your area so you dont miss a beat
HullVoucherScrt Hull Voucher Secrets
Hull Voucher Secrets at 50-90% off retail
Hull Voucher Secrets?! As the youngsters say in their txts, tweets and status updates WTF! I don't live anywhere near Hull, nor do any of my followers I don't believe, anyway Hull or voucher savings schemes don't feature in my irregular less than 140 character posts... Remember that they chose to follow me. Why? I just don't get it!
100% agreed. i have no interest in tweeting my every fart, burp, bad idea, strange idea or offtap one. i change my mood like an OCD washes their hands. i think id confuse myself more!!!!
ReplyDeleteXO Lilly
I am not a tweeter either. I don't understand it. I'm just not cool enough. Though I think that writing something in 140 characters or less would be an interesting experi
ReplyDeleteHm.
I didn't for ages - and it felt like talking at an empty room, but so did blogging at first.
ReplyDeleteNow, I prefer it to Facebook which has become the Piccadilly Circus of social networking and too top heavy.
The dipping into an ongoing flow of chat, banter and news works for me - especially at travelling times..
The only format that I think is more ridiculous than Twitter is Facebook.
ReplyDelete- TOTALLY POINTLESS -
Do I need to know that someone is currently cooking or playing with there kids ?
Am I not capable of creating my OWN friend list WITHOUT bastards on it that I didn't like in the first place ?
Twitter, Facebook...UNFRIEND ME !
- BLEH -
I met a lot of locals through twitter when I joined several years back. We shared interesting (if brief) conversations and found common interests and met up outside of twitter, and it was great. Now almost everyone I liked on twitter is gone. They rarely post so I'm left following a bunch of people I don't know, plus a lot of tasteless, unfunny accounts I can't remember why I followed in the first place. Long term, twitter didn't work out for me either.
ReplyDeleteweird, twitter. I signed up when it started, posted "had a cup of tea, going to bed" or something like that to see how it worked, wondered what on earth i'd twitter about and kind of left it at that.
ReplyDeletesomeone hacked my Twitter account and kept offering people jobs...very odd....
ReplyDeleteby the way...lost your mail and can't seem to bring it up on your profile..mail me at Fourdinners@mail.com I need a favour for a band I know...cheers old bean
It must be to do with the need to have friends, which translates nowadays to how often your phone beeps at you.
ReplyDeleteI'm addicted to Twitter. It's pathetic at times.
ReplyDelete