Tweety Birds, Say Hello to Sylvester

[commonpeople1]

via vilia64

What's your opinion on Twitter? Do you read them on your friends' list? Do you like using it? What's the point? (That's what I'd like to know.)

Comments

[vivnsect.livejournal.com]

I used to hate Twitter with fiery passion until...I started using Facebook and fell in love with the status updates. I then started idly reading a friend's Twitter and the people she was following and I got sucked in. It's a fast way to just blurt what's on your mind very fast and keep a record of your stream of consciousness ramblings. It's less commitment than blogging which is why I think people are attracted to it.

Someone on my friend's list here just actually posted an entire LJ post about Twitter which I found interesting:

http://nubbytwiglet.com/blog/?p=367

The funny thing is months ago I was Facebook and Twitter-phobic and now I am all for both of them. Don't even start me on Plurk which I just also found out about. Ack!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

The only twitters I've seen so far are from people who blogged before (and who still do). In comparison to their longer posts, their twitters fall short. Gone is the humor, the insights, the interesting links. I'm left with disjointed sentences that tell me nothing more than "i clipped my toe nails" or "i drank a glass of orange juice."

Someone created a twitter for a somewhat famous, closeted, brasilian actor, and that one is quite funny because each line is a classic closeted gay male statement - so I can see the point in that. But for everyone else, I think the twitters never seem to go beyond the banal.

[steer.livejournal.com]

I was alluding to someone's comment on not seeing the point of twitter only the other day on my LJ.

It's aimed at people who want to give and get high speed low content updates on their friends' status and thoughts. I'd give money the demographic is predomenantly much younger than LJ for example.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I'd give money the demographic of readers is incredibly low, which is why I ask what's the point. It may be a fast action (just blurting something out) but if nobody is going to read it, is it worthwhile?

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

I also find the insufferably twee plural "tweets" bloody irritating.

[steer.livejournal.com]

I commonly send text messages which only one person reads and find that worthwhile.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

That's completely different though. That's an exchange, based on making plans, making an inside joke, etc. The person who receives it knows it's directed only at them. Perhaps some tweets are the same, but in general they strike me as being completely about nothing, and not really aimed at anyone.

[steer.livejournal.com]

I was just pointing out that a low number of readers does not make this a problem.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I see what you mean; I suppose I'm more interested in the fascination behind the medium, since I personally don't enjoy reading people's twitters (and in fact just skip over them nowadays). I've got to remember that everyone else is different from me! :-)

[idioticpoet.livejournal.com]

Societally speaking, I consider "twittering" to be an excellent manifestation of peoples' decreasing attention span(s). Having said that, regardless of length/content I read each and every post on my friends list.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I agree. We are heading towards a future of soundbytes.

[greenteablack.livejournal.com]

I find them annoying.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Same here, even though the people behind them are generally far from that!

[nisaba.livejournal.com]

I don't mind twitter in and of itself; I can see why some people might want to record thsoe random thoughts through the day and it's good for that. I do wish people wouldn't export twitter to LJ though, becuase frankly, I DON'T CARE. I'll happily read through a paragraph or two of your daily meanderings, but present it in twitter format, and my eyes glaze over. I don't think it suits LJ at all, and if I was interested in twitter, I'd sign up to bloody twitter.

Same goes for facebook status updates - fine on facebook, but if facebook/LJ ever find a way to export status updates to LJ, I might just die of boredom.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I think that's my main beef too, that it's now on LJ and doesn't really fit with what I enjoy about this community. Frankly, let's keep the two things separate. If I wanted to read Twitter, I'd join it - and the same goes for Facebook.

[kevyn-kronycles.livejournal.com]

It's funny, cause another friend of mine asked the exact same question the other day...I don't see the point of Twitter...I'd rather read a real lj post than a point form rundown of a day that doesn't make much global sense. I guess it's another way to keep track of what you've been up to, but I'd find I'd just be keeping track of way more stuff that I don't really need to remember, like what time I took out the garbage or slept in.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

If someone wants to keep track of what they did - like an online agenda/diary - that's perfectly fine. But they should make it private reading only unless they are truly blessed with a chaotic/amusing life. ;-)

[kevyn-kronycles.livejournal.com]

I totally agree.

[arkady.livejournal.com]

I use Twitter as a communication tool for certain people who update their LJ only rarely (something I'm increasingly guilty of myself these days); it's also good for when you want advice or feedback from people more immediately than waiting for LJ comments - one friend found herself stranded in North London recently with no Northern Line running, so Twittered a general "Help!!" and two of us were able to look up bus timetables for her and help her get home - her mobile phone couldn't access the internet, but she'd switched on mobile following on Twitter so she received our replies as text messages.

I view it as a form of conference-call SMS.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I think for those purposes it's very good and I wouldn't argue against it. I only think it's a shame that it has replaced some people's daily LJ posts. When before I'd get concrete ideas and anecdotes, now I get lists and half-thoughts. It's just not engaging.

[arkady.livejournal.com]

Yes; that's one of the reasons I don't crosspost my "tweets" to LJ. It would be rather like only hearing one half of a phone conversation. LJ is LJ, Twitter is Twitter; I really don't think either works very well as a substitute for the other.

[purplethings.livejournal.com]

This post is like Japanese to me-
Some of the words are familiar, but together they make no sense!

[vrax.livejournal.com]

I totally ignore twitter. I see the point of Twitter, quick and dirty thought recording, but not at all the point of X-posting tweets to LJ.

[littlelamb.livejournal.com]

i don't even know how to use twitter. but one of my friends who has 3 jobs started using it when she used to make real posts in law school. i think because it's time saving? true it gives absolutely no insight contrary to her old, actual posts. but i can see why she has taken to using it.

[sublimevisions.livejournal.com]

my first and only twitter was, "i'm sitting on the toilet taking a shit and posting on twitter."

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

A great example of the medium being the message.

[theairwebreathe.livejournal.com]

So far I only really used mine once, when I went to San Francisco and was away from the internet for a couple of days. It's kind of a neat little tool for that sort of thing, to create a running commentary on something when away from a computer.. but yeah, I don't see the point otherwise.

[ex-louter.livejournal.com]

I don't even really know what twitter is; all in all I suck at the internet.
I can barely follow livejournal with the adds and themes and layout schemes.

[rag-and-bone.livejournal.com]

OMG THANK YOU.

what IS twitter, is MY question. it's all over the place and it's like i'm looking at some food item from a distant country that i can guess is edible but am not sure what to do with.

so, really, what is it?

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I think it's one of those food items that you better leave on the shelf.

[tonight-we-fly.livejournal.com]

As far as I'm concerned, Twitter only really exists for the sake of it. Perhaps it would appear more authentic if it only permitted posts in Young Persons Text Message language? UR gr8 m8, CU l8er and things like that.

I'm a big fan of verbosity myself.

[dilvsy.livejournal.com]

sorry

=(

LOL


I only post to twitter when I am sneaking on at work, or too busy. At least I got rid of asll the time stamps, and other stuff, so when mine generate, they are like a mini entry...as I am alsways so full of wit already, don't want to make anyone overdose on my hilarity!

;p

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I actually don't mind your twitters so much because I am into all these ghostly explorations you've been doing. I think it's because you also write normal posts, so it's not like you have given up one for the other.

[dilvsy.livejournal.com]

yeah, I would never give up on lj, I need a place to dump my thoughts

LOL

[desayuno-ingles.livejournal.com]

Twitter can go take a flying leap.

[pexa.livejournal.com]

i was going to try it out, i asked if any one used it a few days ago, but got no response

[bandaloop.livejournal.com]

Ha, I like the micro-blogging but I believe an etiquette will evolve and I think people will begin to limit their networks. I have been giving a lot of thought to the micro-blogging and i see relevant applications. You are right a lot of mundane garbage can be sent. And there are narcissistic and historonic people out there that think every breath they take is of interest to the whole world.

These social networks are primarily designed for advertising. There are many people driven to creating large collection of friends and getting them to respond. Web Celebrity has been around for a while. Viral and Web2.0 marketing, word of mouth too...all is incorporated. This works for bands bars and other venues... I think Twitter has some design on this. ...aaa..

Anyway, I am not using Twitter - I have been considering it's value ... but i bet it is annoying if people are just putting comments out in hopes of some attention. Or giving you a play by play of their daily life.

Oh well, a lot to say but I'll spare you. in a comment and maybe post some of my research in the LJ. Right now, I need to scratch my ass.

[bandaloop.livejournal.com]

Oh one more thing, did I read that you published? I'll go back and read again. I really need to get over to my mother's house and help her clean the horse dicks - yuck. I should never have agreed to this horse ranch thing. Horses are a lot of unnecessary work. If i was independently wealthy and could hire a staff, ok, 1000 pound pets could be fun. It's like a hole in a pasture you throw money into.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I didn't even know farmers had to clean their horses' dicks. Why is that?

[bandaloop.livejournal.com]

Farmers don't have too do it and most don't. My mom's horses are pets and she babies them. They get special Diets and meals. Most farmers just put a huge bail of hay out and keep, keep the weeds down and promote grazing grasses. The books on horse ownership and vets. recommended cleaning the penis because it pulls up into a sheath and well bacteria dirt and bugs get up there too. It makes a mucky mess in there like a dirty toilet and scrapes cuts and bug bites happen. I suppose the smell attracts flys which annoy the horses to no end. Well, other hose owners, and even champion horse owners we have talked to don't do it. But the happy pet horse book and vet recommends it. My mother , being the conscientious pet owner she is, she insists upon it. It's not as bad as it sounds but I think most people would find it gross just to think about let alone do. --- I just through that in to lampoon twitters of useless ennui and lamb content. Same with the scratching my ass... :) But i guess washing horse dicks is at least amusing and curious .. .

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

It's certainly instructive, which is more than can be said about twitters. ;-)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_medium_/]

I use it cos I'm lazy & don't really read them on my friends page cos I read them when I'm the twitter site. :)

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

You're a traitor for abandoning LJ for Twitter! :-)