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The mystery of Twitter
May. 29th, 2009 09:27 pmAnd it was even a short week, but I've had enough.
Tess appears to be doing much better today, even though Gary caught her lying down on the job around lunchtime. ;p
I'm certainly not the first one to wonder what exactly the attraction is about Twitter. It appears to be well on its way to becoming one huge pile of spam, filled with scam artists and twerps who want to trick you into investing in their "system" or buy their book on how to become rich or whatever. Just post a line that contains critical words like "profit" or "enterprise" and watch as half a dozen strangers follow you (hoping, I'm sure, that you will automatically follow them back so that their spammy messages reach you each time they send one. Someone "recommended" me to "mrtweet" a few weeks ago as a person to follow. The recommendation was flattering, though sufficiently off-beat that it got little notice if any. But this resulted in my being pestered by "mrtweet" (who is, I gather a sort of bot) to follow "it". Doing so resulted in receiving regular "suggestions" on how to "improve my twitter usage." Most of them consisted of advice aimed at getting more attention and more followers, as if it were a game to see who could get the largest following. I don't see this. Why would I want ten thousand followers? I'm not selling anything, I'm not running for office, and if I were, I would use other channels to get attention anyway.
Whoever "mrtweet" is, I kept being asked if their advice was helpful. They wanted me to "post more links" and "retweet messages from well known users." Sorry. I think posting links is about as stupid as forwarding those chain e-mail messages about this and that tragedy or imaginary scare. And retweeting the assinine only makes it more assinine and includes you in the herd of asses.
Today I got fed up and unfollowed "mrtweet", posting a snide remark as I did so. I received a honeycoated message from them saying they were "sorry" that they hadn't met my needs and asking me to tell them what they did wrong. I already told them several times. Obviously they don't get it. Or else I don't, and should drop twitter entirely. I find it about as useful as any IM for exchanging quips with people I know. Beyond that, it seems pretty pointless. Mostly it's a big rumor mill, like being plugged into talk radio 24 hours a day, or reading a whole tabloid newspaper every morning (eeew!) I just don't see much utility in it, and would never trust it with an important message nor would I accept anything I heard there on face value without checking in a more reliable source.
The only twitterer I've seen making a novel use of the thing, and one that was enjoyable, is writer and editor Ben Goodridge, who was for a while writing "mini-novels" with an entire plotline (generally slightly absurd) compressed into 140 characters or less. Now that was at least creative, and sure beats myriad complaints about being stuck in traffic or the toilet overfloweth or "my train is late."
Am I a Luddite? Hardly. But I do demand some degree of utility rather than just going "oooo" over every new gadget.
Tess appears to be doing much better today, even though Gary caught her lying down on the job around lunchtime. ;p
I'm certainly not the first one to wonder what exactly the attraction is about Twitter. It appears to be well on its way to becoming one huge pile of spam, filled with scam artists and twerps who want to trick you into investing in their "system" or buy their book on how to become rich or whatever. Just post a line that contains critical words like "profit" or "enterprise" and watch as half a dozen strangers follow you (hoping, I'm sure, that you will automatically follow them back so that their spammy messages reach you each time they send one. Someone "recommended" me to "mrtweet" a few weeks ago as a person to follow. The recommendation was flattering, though sufficiently off-beat that it got little notice if any. But this resulted in my being pestered by "mrtweet" (who is, I gather a sort of bot) to follow "it". Doing so resulted in receiving regular "suggestions" on how to "improve my twitter usage." Most of them consisted of advice aimed at getting more attention and more followers, as if it were a game to see who could get the largest following. I don't see this. Why would I want ten thousand followers? I'm not selling anything, I'm not running for office, and if I were, I would use other channels to get attention anyway.
Whoever "mrtweet" is, I kept being asked if their advice was helpful. They wanted me to "post more links" and "retweet messages from well known users." Sorry. I think posting links is about as stupid as forwarding those chain e-mail messages about this and that tragedy or imaginary scare. And retweeting the assinine only makes it more assinine and includes you in the herd of asses.
Today I got fed up and unfollowed "mrtweet", posting a snide remark as I did so. I received a honeycoated message from them saying they were "sorry" that they hadn't met my needs and asking me to tell them what they did wrong. I already told them several times. Obviously they don't get it. Or else I don't, and should drop twitter entirely. I find it about as useful as any IM for exchanging quips with people I know. Beyond that, it seems pretty pointless. Mostly it's a big rumor mill, like being plugged into talk radio 24 hours a day, or reading a whole tabloid newspaper every morning (eeew!) I just don't see much utility in it, and would never trust it with an important message nor would I accept anything I heard there on face value without checking in a more reliable source.
The only twitterer I've seen making a novel use of the thing, and one that was enjoyable, is writer and editor Ben Goodridge, who was for a while writing "mini-novels" with an entire plotline (generally slightly absurd) compressed into 140 characters or less. Now that was at least creative, and sure beats myriad complaints about being stuck in traffic or the toilet overfloweth or "my train is late."
Am I a Luddite? Hardly. But I do demand some degree of utility rather than just going "oooo" over every new gadget.
