From the sounds of things I have some catching up to do if I make constructive comments. So I guess I need a definination of Twitter. Here are a few possibilities TWITTER =”Motor Mouth” or “All shook up” or “nervious agitation” or “giggle” or “excited”. So educate me. Uncle Riley
Uncle Riley on
Sorry one more.
“You have my heart in all a Twitter?”
walljm on
Twitter is a website that collates IM’s and Mobile text messages and sends them to people who have subscribed to you. Its a way of sharing minutia about your life to a lot of people without a lot of typing. ;)
Sean C. on
A theory on this suggests that personal (phone or face to face) communication is really the only effective way of maintaining a real and meaningful relationship with another human being. A text message or an IM or an RSS feed on someone’s life shares two things about the author.
1) The fact that a person would rather send these “twitter’s” of information than pick up a phone or drive a car to communicate shows a lack of respect for the intended audience.
2) The only reason the author sends these “twitter’s” to people springs from a narcissistic view of himself.
Twitter communication, as it is called for the sake of this comment, shows how shallow human interpersonal relationships have become in the Information Age. It is like the saying from the 90’s, He who has the most toys wins. In this case, he who has the biggest online “fan” base wins.
walljm on
Sean: I disagree. I think you misplace what a service like Twitter is supposed to accomplish. It isn’t meant to supplant real communication (face to face, phone) with other people.
Its similar to the way we use texting now, only more distributed and simpler for the kinds of expressions you don’t intend for a single person. Its an outlet for small observations/ideas/likes/whimsy where none would otherwise exist (for some people).
Twitter communication is no more shallow than announcing “I’m hungry” to no one in particular in a room of casual friends. Which is to say, both actions are shallow. But neither are indicative of overarching shallowness in all communications. The give and take of human interaction has room for both shallow and deep forms of exchange.
Sean C. on
If I said, “I’m hungry” in a group of people, most wouldn’t say a thing but you can guarantee that that piece of information would be placed in the mental File 13. No one cares if I am hungry and they surely don’t care that I announce it to the room. If I think people actually want to hear that I am hungry, well then I am shallow. Now if I do it because I follow it with “Who wants to go grab a pizza” then fine, but I don’t think that this is the end point of a twitter communique.
If twitter isn’t supposed to supplement real communication, why do a) people use it that way, b)use it at all?
My point being that the type of communication used in twitter is quite useless and unnecessary at all. What is the point? Give me a useful reason to use twitter on a regular basis and then let’s re-evaluate the situation.
BTW, I don’t mean shallow as in “How’s the weather?” I mean it as in “I don’t care bout you but I want to make myself feel important”
PPS. Lets see if this becomes another 20+ comment post.
;-)
walljm on
Sean: I can’t speak for everyone. I’ve been playing with Twitter for a couple days. I’ve found it helps me to keep up with friends in SC, DC, and a couple other places throughout the US that I otherwise wouldn’t be prompted to chat with.
For instance, a couple good friends of mine, the Bergey’s, live in South Carolina. I get little msgs from them about various trivia. Daniel is a web developer, so some of that trivia is interesting to me. On several occasions, knowing that he is working or thinking about something I have in common is cause enough for me to call him or IM him to talk about.
I may chat with him just to catch up, but those kinds of conversation don’t usually include small minutia, mostly because its been forgotten. The little msgs serve as hooks for further, deeper, discussion.
Joyous on
so basically it’s a type of personalized “newspaper”?
I have to agree that the minutia gets lost in day-to-day life, the minutia that builds a comfort level in a friendship–being far away from friends means that when I get a chance to talk to them on the phone or, better yet, to actually see them in person one of two things happens: 1) we are both running in opposite directions so fast that we can hardly exchange more than “hi it’s good to see you we need to plan some time to catch up gotta go goodbye” or 2) we try to “catch up” with the bigger things that happened in life and so manage a rather selective summary–like a sampler of chocolates or cheeses rather than a complete meal. Is this what Twitter was supposed to help? or is it just useless verbiage?
PS is this controversial enough or broad enough to excite 20+ comments? =)
Joyous on
finally decided to look at it–I guess it’s really for people who are online all the time anyway, isn’t it?
walljm on
Joy: Yes, it is. Granted, my experience with it is small at this point, but I’ve really enjoyed getting these little updates from the people I’ve put in my follow list. Daniel and Jennifer are good friends, but I don’t get to keep up with them much, and a lot of times my conv do run toward the big catch up sort. I like knowing about the minutia, it helps fill in the gaps.
Twitter can be used from your phone. When I’m not logged into IM or on the web, the text messages get sent to my phone. It works pretty well as long as you don’t have too many people in your follow list. ;)
Sean C. on
Joy,
I have tried my best, but this is just one button of Jason’s that I cannot push. Better stated, this is like a good television program that has been pulled due to low ratings because the network didn’t put it in a proper time slo– oh wait, I can’t use that word because of the spam filter. Time something.
hmm.
Time.. place? No. area? No. spot? Yes, I think spot will due nicely.
So as I was saying, this is like a good television program that has been pulled due to low ratings because the network didn’t put it in a proper time spot
walljm on
*snort*
Joyous on
I dunno, Sean, using the word “narcissistic” was a very nice touch. But he had a good answer for it, and really, watching him read the updates he gets, I can’t see that the pleasure derived from Twitter lies in telling others about oneself as much as finding out what they have to say about their lives.
Valiant attempt all the same =)
Joyous on
I dunno, Sean, using the word “narcissistic” was a very nice touch. But he had a good answer for it, and really, watching him read the updates he gets, I can’t see that the pleasure derived from Twitter lies in telling others about oneself as much as finding out what they have to say about their lives.
Valiant attempt all the same =)
Julie on
I like it because it is yet another way of finding out what Jeremy or Jason (those are the only people I follow) are doing or thinking. Maybe it’s only because I’m nosy though. That’s what Jeremy says. LOL When Jeremy comes home from work, I can start a conversation about one of his twitter comments.
15 Comments
From the sounds of things I have some catching up to do if I make constructive comments.
So I guess I need a definination of Twitter. Here are a few possibilities
TWITTER =”Motor Mouth” or “All shook up” or “nervious agitation” or “giggle” or “excited”.
So educate me. Uncle Riley
Sorry one more.
“You have my heart in all a Twitter?”
Twitter is a website that collates IM’s and Mobile text messages and sends them to people who have subscribed to you. Its a way of sharing minutia about your life to a lot of people without a lot of typing. ;)
A theory on this suggests that personal (phone or face to face) communication is really the only effective way of maintaining a real and meaningful relationship with another human being. A text message or an IM or an RSS feed on someone’s life shares two things about the author.
1) The fact that a person would rather send these “twitter’s” of information than pick up a phone or drive a car to communicate shows a lack of respect for the intended audience.
2) The only reason the author sends these “twitter’s” to people springs from a narcissistic view of himself.
Twitter communication, as it is called for the sake of this comment, shows how shallow human interpersonal relationships have become in the Information Age. It is like the saying from the 90’s, He who has the most toys wins. In this case, he who has the biggest online “fan” base wins.
Sean: I disagree. I think you misplace what a service like Twitter is supposed to accomplish. It isn’t meant to supplant real communication (face to face, phone) with other people.
Its similar to the way we use texting now, only more distributed and simpler for the kinds of expressions you don’t intend for a single person. Its an outlet for small observations/ideas/likes/whimsy where none would otherwise exist (for some people).
Twitter communication is no more shallow than announcing “I’m hungry” to no one in particular in a room of casual friends. Which is to say, both actions are shallow. But neither are indicative of overarching shallowness in all communications. The give and take of human interaction has room for both shallow and deep forms of exchange.
If I said, “I’m hungry” in a group of people, most wouldn’t say a thing but you can guarantee that that piece of information would be placed in the mental File 13. No one cares if I am hungry and they surely don’t care that I announce it to the room. If I think people actually want to hear that I am hungry, well then I am shallow. Now if I do it because I follow it with “Who wants to go grab a pizza” then fine, but I don’t think that this is the end point of a twitter communique.
If twitter isn’t supposed to supplement real communication, why do a) people use it that way, b)use it at all?
My point being that the type of communication used in twitter is quite useless and unnecessary at all. What is the point? Give me a useful reason to use twitter on a regular basis and then let’s re-evaluate the situation.
BTW, I don’t mean shallow as in “How’s the weather?” I mean it as in “I don’t care bout you but I want to make myself feel important”
PPS. Lets see if this becomes another 20+ comment post.
;-)
Sean: I can’t speak for everyone. I’ve been playing with Twitter for a couple days. I’ve found it helps me to keep up with friends in SC, DC, and a couple other places throughout the US that I otherwise wouldn’t be prompted to chat with.
For instance, a couple good friends of mine, the Bergey’s, live in South Carolina. I get little msgs from them about various trivia. Daniel is a web developer, so some of that trivia is interesting to me. On several occasions, knowing that he is working or thinking about something I have in common is cause enough for me to call him or IM him to talk about.
I may chat with him just to catch up, but those kinds of conversation don’t usually include small minutia, mostly because its been forgotten. The little msgs serve as hooks for further, deeper, discussion.
so basically it’s a type of personalized “newspaper”?
I have to agree that the minutia gets lost in day-to-day life, the minutia that builds a comfort level in a friendship–being far away from friends means that when I get a chance to talk to them on the phone or, better yet, to actually see them in person one of two things happens: 1) we are both running in opposite directions so fast that we can hardly exchange more than “hi it’s good to see you we need to plan some time to catch up gotta go goodbye” or 2) we try to “catch up” with the bigger things that happened in life and so manage a rather selective summary–like a sampler of chocolates or cheeses rather than a complete meal.
Is this what Twitter was supposed to help? or is it just useless verbiage?
PS is this controversial enough or broad enough to excite 20+ comments? =)
finally decided to look at it–I guess it’s really for people who are online all the time anyway, isn’t it?
Joy: Yes, it is. Granted, my experience with it is small at this point, but I’ve really enjoyed getting these little updates from the people I’ve put in my follow list. Daniel and Jennifer are good friends, but I don’t get to keep up with them much, and a lot of times my conv do run toward the big catch up sort. I like knowing about the minutia, it helps fill in the gaps.
Twitter can be used from your phone. When I’m not logged into IM or on the web, the text messages get sent to my phone. It works pretty well as long as you don’t have too many people in your follow list. ;)
Joy,
I have tried my best, but this is just one button of Jason’s that I cannot push. Better stated, this is like a good television program that has been pulled due to low ratings because the network didn’t put it in a proper time slo– oh wait, I can’t use that word because of the spam filter. Time something.
hmm.
Time..
place? No.
area? No.
spot? Yes, I think spot will due nicely.
So as I was saying, this is like a good television program that has been pulled due to low ratings because the network didn’t put it in a proper time spot
*snort*
I dunno, Sean, using the word “narcissistic” was a very nice touch. But he had a good answer for it, and really, watching him read the updates he gets, I can’t see that the pleasure derived from Twitter lies in telling others about oneself as much as finding out what they have to say about their lives.
Valiant attempt all the same =)
I dunno, Sean, using the word “narcissistic” was a very nice touch. But he had a good answer for it, and really, watching him read the updates he gets, I can’t see that the pleasure derived from Twitter lies in telling others about oneself as much as finding out what they have to say about their lives.
Valiant attempt all the same =)
I like it because it is yet another way of finding out what Jeremy or Jason (those are the only people I follow) are doing or thinking. Maybe it’s only because I’m nosy though. That’s what Jeremy says. LOL When Jeremy comes home from work, I can start a conversation about one of his twitter comments.