March 1st, 2009
Why do people like Twitter? I know they do. But I’ll be hornswaggled if I see why.
I have my own Twitter account and have been checking it out for a little while. I follow some people. Some people follow me. It seems just like Facebook only with less content. And most people I follow post the same update on Facebook too, so why am I checking two places?
I think Twitter is probably more interesting for people who sit at their computers all day. Actually no, the Facebook comparison still holds in that situation too. Revised opinion: I think people do it just because other people do it. I call bullshit on Twitter: it’s one big sheep herding pen. Twitter adds nothing to the social networking options already available and in fact is overwhelmingly one long stream of drivel – but we’re doing it because everyone else is doing it too.
And now I brace for the sheep to shit all over me in comments for this observation.
The difference between Twitter and Facebook is subtle but important when figuring out why Twitter is useful.
On Facebook, you’re posting “status updates” that only your friends can see and comment on.
Twitter is far more open. People can announce things to the world and get feedback without having to become a “friend” to thousands. Anyone following that person can respond, creating a dialog (if the original person is following them, or clicks “replies” to see it).
This small difference means Twitter is becoming a global conversation, and that is a pretty cool thing.
You are right that it’s much more useful to people who are “at computers all day”, but that group is growing and not just because more people are “sitting at computers”. There are several excellent Twitter clients for the iPhone/iPod Touch. I’m pretty sure the new Blackberries all do Twitter. Open wireless networks are all over the place, so even my iPod Touch lets me tweet from the Yaletown Brew Pub or the Railway Club. People with the phones have data plans and can be connected almost anywhere in the world!
Twitter can certainly use some improving. I’d love to be able to “group” people into “close friends”, “acquaintances”, “celebrities”, etc. so I could organize my now-growing list of “tweeps”. I think there are applications that do this, but that would tie me down to a specific computer/place. That feature should be built-in so I can use it on my PC, my iPod, or whatever future internet appliance I may have.
Well, on facebook you only follow people you know. On twitter you can follow interesting people (celebs, scientists, internet personalities). Right now you’re only following around a dozen people. Also, I think having a private account really restricts part of the point of Twitter which is to find people online that find you interesting or vice versa.
“facebook but with less content”. probably ironically, this statement increases my interest in Twitter. I have a lengthy discourse about why I don’t do facebook (similar to my discourse on why I don’t wish to have children — I don’t think it’s bad or anything, I just don’t want to do it myself), and it’s taken awhile, but twitter is slowly gaining my interest. I might just have to give it a twirl.
I’m probably one of those sheeple who uses Twitter like a mini-facebook and does automatically send updates bi-directionally. Why? Why?
I could have joined that global conversation, but all the follower requests from chiropracters and peddlers of natural cures quickly turned me off.
Well, initially I did have a bunch more contacts but was disappointed to discover most – almost all – of the updates were pretty mundane. Actually I enjoy your updates most of everyone I’ve followed! Quite amusing! But so far I have found this to be a rare trait. I am interested in the mundane things people I know say… I am not interested in the mundane things strangers say.
Excised by blog author: This comment formerly contained material that was too hostile to be left in place.
I doubt it was the sort of thing Jesus would have said, Incognito.
aww, I want to know what the hostile material was.
A simple comparison of Twitter users to those who engage in large group masturbation sessions.
To be fair, I think it was only slightly more colorful that calling Twitter a sheep herding pen, which is a characterization of the users as sheep; essentially dumb animals that are easily cozened.
But I think Vex has a soft spot for bellicose lefties, those on the right… or is it in the right… tend to get censored here and there.
As an aside, Jesus was pretty excoriating at times.
~ I.
The only comments I have ever censored was the ones in which overt name calling occurred – and in that case it was in *your* defense.
I thought your comment in this case was bizarrely hostile and demonstrated a surprising level of arrogance and self absorption. To classify an entire group of individuals as being without value entirely is nothing like referring to the groupthink or following tendency that all people naturally have.
And I don’t particularly relish providing a forum for your unprovoked vitriol, but in the interest of not being a censor, here is your comment reprinted verbatim:
“I think Twitter is great, in that in allows the mundanes to perform a global circle-jerk of self importance, where they can all follow each other in a shared delusion that any of them are noteworthy.
~ I.”
Also, from the tone of this I’m guessing you didn’t get my email? I sent you one upon removal to explain.