My wife didn't want me to write about Twitter. In her mind she thinks it's pointless and a little "scary" how people want to use these applications in hopes of connecting and communicating. I'm not sure if I disagree with her, but I want to get this out just because Twitter seems to be growing.You say Twitter to someone and one of two things happen. Either they get really excited and want to talk about it or their eyes glaze over and the force-field of "new technology fear" is raised. Like most things new on the web, there is this overwhelming feeling of concern and excitement as the latest "gadget" comes out vowing to make our (Internet) life more fun.
I won't try to explain Twitter. I've learned over the years that explaining new technologies that have never had application before are very challenging to understand. My parents swore up and down that Tivo was completely unnecessary when they had two VCRs and they never missed anything they wanted to watch. My brother and I bought them a Tivo anyway. They kicked and screamed for about the length of time it took to download the program schedule to the Tivo. Today you couldn't convince them to ever get rid of it. Other examples of these "hard-to-explain-to-your-parents" technologies are the iPhone, RSS, Blogs, etc. Once you find a use for them, you wonder how you could have ever lived without them.If you want the best "explainer" I have found for Twitter watch this very short video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o (youtube version)
Does anyone care what I do from email to email or from post to post? I have never had anyone email me and say "What are you doing RIGHT NOW?" or "Why haven't you blogged lately?" My friends and family understand that I contact them when something is going on...not when I've just switched brands of toothpaste or found the cleanest public bathroom in Portland or mowed the lawn in circle patterns. What I'm getting at is that the details between email or phone calls are important to store and talk about later.
I would argue that by not keeping a little information about yourself stored up and told later, you are destroying the romantic aspect of your life. When we store up a bunch of mildly important events and later tell them to someone else, we have the opportunity to embellish the story to make it more interesting...even if we stretch the facts a bit. This is what life is about. If you knew every aspect of my life before I had the opportunity to tell you personally, I would be an incredibly boring person.Believe it or not, I do think Twitter is EXTREMELY useful...but probably not for me. If I were a teacher, I could use Twitter to inform my students that the geography assignment will be due in 2 weeks instead of on Friday. If I were a sales manager I could let sales people know that the new sales presentations have a typo on them and not to use them. And so on. If you have information that "impacts" others I think you should seriously consider Twitter.
As for me, I wish I could find uses for Twitter in my life...but alas I can't. My Twitter page at the time of this post says it all:- My first cell Tweet - about 7 hours ago from txt
- Actively experimenting with twitter - 10:11 AM Apr 22nd from web
- Learning about twitter - 8:47 PM Dec 18th, 2008 from web
4 comments:
The pendulum has swung in favor of "the more information about ME, the better".
I dream of the day the pendulum swings back to less narcissistic information, more discernment, less following like sheep, and more creative ways to get to know OTHERS.
We are so fascinated by ourselves! In an effort to stroke our own egos, we stroke the egos of others which perpetuates this movie-like life where we are the main characters.
I say, it's time to extract information and wisdom from others in an effort to get to know people whom we sincerely care about. I hope that I am not misunderstood.
Let me put it this way: I would rather not talk to a friend of mine for weeks and then meet up for lunch and exchange big hugs and see her face and catch up in person, rather than go for weeks and weeks reading about the doldrums of her life.
To me, the essence of friendships cannot be found online. I realize that blogging and emailing and phone calling are all things that have brought us closer to things like Twitter, but I personally have to draw the line somewhere.
Also, on a totally separate note, I think keeping track of everyone's Twitter and including my own throughout the day would make me feel more connected to the computer than I ultimately want. (Which is ALSO one reason I don't have Facebook or Myspace...) I like the idea of being on the computer once or twice a day, MAX, and living the rest of my life organically....being outside, writing letters, talking to neighbors, etc.
I love that you have written on such an important subject. Thanks for allowing me to share my opinion. I would love to hear from more people, as I'm sure there are a million different ways to look at this.
I don't Twitter. I don't really have an interest in Twittering, not because I'm against it but because I feel fulfilled in the ways I communicate with people in my life already. If people want to Tweet, that's cool, and maybe I'll change my mind one day and start Tweeting.
I'm curious, though, how you perceive knowing the details of someone's life as taking the romance away? And how you perceive it as romantic to embellish (aka: inflate, fabricate, lie?) in telling a story about something that happened to you? I know you probably don't mean romantic, as in amore but romantic, as in fascinating; but how is that fulfiling when you really know what happened--an embellished story is an untruth, it's not real, it's a fantasy. Why would you want to give people close to you a false perception of something that happened in your life? It's seems contradictory to why you'd choose not to use Twitter and Facebook.
Sure, FB and the ilk could be considered narcissistic, but really, most communication of any form is. Why do I call someone? Why do I write someone a letter? It's for me ultimately. I want to talk. I want to hear his/her voice. I want fulfillment from the connection. I want them to know what's going on in my life. I'm giving, too, by listening, but even in my listening and receiving, I'm taking. I don't think one can say there is a single form of communication that isn't at least partially me-centered. I'd even go out on a limb and say Twitter and FB are ways to give to the people in one's life, especially for people like John and me, who are thousands of miles away from most of the people that are closest to us. I know we hit this point at Christmastime last year, but for me, I love getting a status update and knowing that my best friend from college just took her two year old to the zoo. I love to find out in a quick blurb that a high school friend with whom I recently connected on FB just ran the Eugene Marathon. These are things that I don't consider narcissistic at all. They are ways to be connected with people the best way I can, being across the country. I wake up and can't wait to read what my friends are doing because I don't have the luxury of meeting them for coffee every couple of weeks. Furthermore, why can't it be both ways? Why can't we receive daily status updates of what friends are doing AND have coffee when time and geography allow? It doesn't have to be mutually exclusive, does it?
@Mindy- (Ironic that I use the "@"...that is straight from Twitter.) First a disclaimer-I know that what I write can come across as a little judgmental and under-researched...but I began this blog strictly to improve my own writing skills and try to keep a consistent tone that is not omniscient.
I use the word "romantic" as described in your second definition. I think what I was simply trying to say is that too many details take the peaks and valleys out of a story line. As I mention later...it's up to the user to use Twitter appropriately (or what I consider appropriately.)
I concede that I (once again) was a little too polarizing on the usefulness of it and probably make the "middle-ground" users feel a little alienated. If I had listened to Nicole (who proofread the article) I would have expanded a lot more. In the interest of keeping it short (and a little bit informative) I deleted several paragraphs and condensed them in to one. Looking back at this article I see that I should have expanded more.
I think Twitter is great (and I'm less anti-Facebook these days.) My concern will always be with people and their interaction with technology. I am not anti technology by any means...but I am critical of how we interface with it. From cruise-control (in cars) to Twitter how we USE these in wonderful (yes wonderful) technological achievements should be scrutinized by each individual.
[I deleted my list of several news stories showing the devastating effects of mismanagement of technology by individuals...think text message crashes or using the autopilot in an ice-storm]
Though my opinion sounds more or less a Luddite battle cry than an objective report on Twitter, it's important for me to say that technology has no capacity to be good or bad...it's the human behavior behind it.
User responsibility and efficiency--I understand and agree with that, for sure. (I feel like there's a movie reference or analogy here that would make John proud, but I'm failing to come up with it. Terminator and Blade Runner come to mind.)
I would never consider you (or Nicole) a luddite, but I would opine that you're wary of the irresponsible/inefficient user and wary of becoming one, and I get that. If we didn't live so far away, I doubt FB would as useful to us. Now that I think about it, I don't interact with my NY friends on FB as much as my OR friends, since I see them so often.
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