Twitter, twitter, twitter
Everyone’s talking about Twitter. Well, everyone in the blogging world that is.
What do they say about twitter:
It’s heralded as a Millennial thing. – Yet, no one cares to note that most Millennials have never heard of it. I have only one acquittance that twitters. Most of my friends have never heard of it. My roommate has learned about it due to it being in the news this week regarding the boy who used it to get out of jail. However, she notes “I didn’t really understand what it is. The article didn’t explain it that well. Is it like a text message thing?”
It’s will help you in the business world. – Myspace can be used as a business vehicle. Maybe even Facebook can. But, I would argue that Twitter cannot. Myspace and Facebook can work because they can be setup to be professional. There’s nothing professional about writing a blurb on what you’re thinking or doing. Do people really need to know that you were once bulimic? Will this type of information ever help you get a job or sell a product? Also, I’m not sure your boss wants to see that you were twittering during the day.
What twitter can do is make you seem more personable. You become a person with feelings and history rather than someone who types professional words on a screen. Although if you read Hillary Clinton’s twitter it doesn’t help display her personality (or maybe it does, which does nothing to help her campaign).
Twitter seems similar to LinkedIn in many respects. It’s one of those things that people do because they believe everyone else is doing it and that in the long run it may help them in some way.
Sadly, I have to say that I have joined the masses. Not because I think it will benefit me professionally in anyway (I think the opposite) but because many things happen in my life that I want to blog about but wouldn’t be appropriate in this forum. Maybe that’s why people do it? Another forum for their thoughts. But, how many forums is too many? Do we all need a Myspace, a Facebook, a LinkedIn account, a Twitter, a Blog, etc?
April 29, 2008 at 8:59 am |
I don’t know Rachel, I think people that get all amped up about Twitter being the next web based revolution in business are trying too hard.
Twitter is social networking, plain and simple. A way to share thoughts, experiences and snippets of life with your friends and acquaintances. If people on Twitter make their ‘tweets’ simply about the latest-greatest product they are hawking, they will get promptly ignored by me… but if they somehow provide a little additional, interesting, comical, 140 character glimpse into their world, then I’ll likely be a fan.
April 29, 2008 at 2:24 pm |
I don’t know about you, but Twitter makes me more of a narcissist. I didn’t think it was possible, so hats off to the developers of Twitter for taking me to the next level.
April 30, 2008 at 8:04 pm |
[...] makes a good argument for the uselessness of Twitter. If you truly look at what twitter is, it’s a tool to help people stalk you. They [...]
May 21, 2008 at 6:02 am |
Welcome to the twitterverse, and I’ve been finding it useful!
http://twitter.com/gautamghosh
May 21, 2008 at 6:35 pm |
Gautamghosh – I’m finding it disturbingly self-glorifying.
June 13, 2008 at 3:00 am |
heh, since when has self-glory been ‘disturbing’ ?
June 20, 2008 at 9:17 pm |
Gautam – Maybe it’s only disturbing when it comes from me!