twitter

[odinson]

The trouble with twitters (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN2HAroA12w)

[MasterSwordUltima]

Wow that's weird. My fiancee showed me that last night. Creepy.

[Aliem]

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2008/20080423.jpg

I honestly don't know what the point of Twitter is. I got one, thinking it had some real purpose. Oh how wrong I was.

[Beldaran]

Twitter is fucking stupid.

[biggiy05]

Twitter is fucking stupid.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

[odinson]

I don't use any of those social networking sites, I had a myspace for like a minute but that's it.

[The_Amaster]

Twitter is just this manifestation that people seem to have lately, this desire to be in constant contact with all of their friends constantly. Honestly? It's just an extension of how half the kids in any given class of mine are constantly texting each other with things like
"what r u doing?"
sitting in class. bored"
"me 2"

Eh, I keep my Facebook updated, because it alows me to chat with most of my friends easier than anything else, and going off to college soon I want to keep contact. But those stupid surveys? or useless apps? I use Flair. That's it.
I had MySpace at one point, but it got so immature and juvenile that I said "screw this"
...mind you, sometimes Facebook seems worse...

[biggiy05]

I have a facebook to keep in touch with people I went to high school with and guys I trained with during the fire academy. I have a myspace because I had it before it was "cool" and just never got rid of it. My lady friend and I use it to let each other know about training at the station or a run we had. Other than that I don't do anything on it.

[rock_nog]

Facebook has become very Twitter-like lately. To me, the main point is that half my friends moved halfway across the country after college, so it's an easy way to keep in touch.

[The_Amaster]

Yeah. I got mine just a month ago exactly in preparation for that. I didn't really need it in high-school, when, ya know, I saw most of my friends every day.
The people I considered close enough to actually want to talk to outside of school hours, I had other means of communication anyway.

[erm2003]

I have both a myspace and facebook but I never use the myspace, ever. Most of my friends on there are also friends with me through facebook and I can keep in touch with more people that way. I also HATE the apps and I am constantly blocking them. I think I have used only 2 or 3, so annoying.

[Shazza Dani]

I had MySpace at one point, but it got so immature and juvenile that I said "screw this"
...mind you, sometimes Facebook seems worse...

The way I see it, it's only as juvenile as people make it. It's not the website's fault if your friends are retarded. But the apps don't help; they just encourage stupidity.

[MasterSwordUltima]

Myspace is so unprofessionally cluttered and hard to read on basically any of the pages. People see a giant animated gif of something stupid and make it their background image, looping none the less. We might as well be back in 1998 using the internet.

[biggiy05]

Facebook has become very Twitter-like lately. To me, the main point is that half my friends moved halfway across the country after college, so it's an easy way to keep in touch.

All people do on facebook nowadays is update their status to complain about something. Take my step sister for example. She bitches and moans about anything and everything. Now she's pregnant and every day she updates it with a complaint about how she's tired or sick.

Problem is it's in your face when you log in and there isn't really a way to avoid seeing the mass updates/complains from people. Especially after the new "update". Twitter is used for the sole purpose of telling people what you're doing every waking second.

[Gerudo]

well, i have been using twitter for a little while now as a means of keeping people updated about my life. i'm not always online and dont always keep in contact with a few people. i have people that like to know i'm not dead, and honestly it's been getting more lengthy between my online times. so its convenient for me. i also have a twitter display on my myspace for easy access so people dont have to load into a separate page to see it. seriously, i dont twitter about every little thing, but once every couple days is easier than keeping up with a regular blog when i can just send a simple txt.

i agree about the douche pages on myspace though. i want to see a simple page, not see ten thousand random images about this and that. half the time you cant even click the appropriate links because of it. i like to keep my profile as easy on the eyes as possible.

[MasterSwordUltima]

I simply don't understand you why can't just text those people or whatever. Twitter seems to me like its just a big "LOOK AT ME!! STUDY ME!!" thing.

Seriously, who cares if you've found a parking space, or if you are waiting in line, or just got to work? Is it really that important?

OHMYGOD, WHERE'S JIM? Oh thank god he twittered that he's at work, or else I would have had to actually communicate with him...

[Shazza Dani]

Even if you have "important" things to Twitter about, who really cares? It's so egotistical to believe people actually want to read about what you're doing all day.

[Beldaran]

Twitter is just another example of how our culture worships the mundane and mediocre. We used to be interested in captains of industry, inventors, and great artists, now we get excited when someone takes a shit or has bacon with their toast.

[rock_nog]

...wait. Are you suggesting there is anything more interesting than bacon?

[Shazza Dani]

It would be more interesting if they had shit with their toast. O:

[The_Amaster]

No, Bel's got it in one. It's an ego thing, treating every random person as though they're special and important. And because of that, no one strives to actually do anything special or important anymore.

As an expansion, its similar to what I've dubbed the DeviantArt effect.
DA is an enabler for people whose art skills, quite honestly, suck.
(I'm looking mostly at the fan-artists here. Yes, there are good artists on DA, I'll admit. I have a different worry about them)
It used to be, you got better or else no-one showed you any interest. On the net, you can wipe your ass on a piece of paper, and you'll still find some-one who will tell you it's brilliant, and you're special and great. Which just encourages more of the same.

It's the homogenity and mediocrity of our current society.

[MasterSwordUltima]

No, Bel's got it in one. It's an ego thing, treating every random person as though they're special and important. And because of that, no one strives to actually do anything special or important anymore.

As an expansion, its similar to one of the aspects of what I've dubbed the DeviantArt effect.
DA is an enabler for people whose art skills, quite honestly, suck.
(I'm looking mostly at the fan-artists here. Yes, there are good artists on DA, I'll admit. I have a different worry about them)
It used to be, you got better or else no-one showed you any interest. On the net, you can wipe your ass on a piece of paper, and you'll still find some-one who will tell you it's brilliant, and you're special and great. Which just encourages more of the same.

It's the homogenity and mediocrity of our current society.


I find that on DeviantArt, more people just outright steal pictures from others and say how they like it. But yes, your point remains.

[rock_nog]

This has been a long time coming, honestly. I recognized we were heading this way when reality television first became big. It's like, well shit, when garbage like this is just as popular as material that's well-written, with high production values and good actors, you can kiss decent television goodbye. Then you had Youtube, where idiots crushing their nuts trying to do skateboard tricks got just as many views as the people who actually put an effort into making a short film or whatever. This is really just the natural progression of that.

[The_Amaster]

Everyone can be special, everyone can be super!
*maniacal laughter*
And when everyone's super...
*dark look*
no-one will be...

[Beldaran]

Everyone can be special, everyone can be super!
*maniacal laughter*
And when everyone's super...
*dark look*
no-one will be...

I love that movie.

http://disney-clipart.com/incredibles/jpg/syndrome-incredibles.jpg

[AtmaWeapon]

There's many ways that many people use Twitter. For some people, it has no use. For some people, it's the new way to stay in touch with people you don't care about. For others, it's a professional networking tool.

I follow the man who founded Craigslist, the man who created the idea of blogging, the founder of TechCrunch, several intelligent and influential programmers, chairmen of international committees, NYT bestselling authors, Adam Savage, and a few others. When they find something interesting, they tweet about it, and I find out about it. There's tons of products, articles, and news events I wouldn't have known about if I didn't watch Twitter occasionally.

The secret is to not care about the people following you; care about those you follow. No one here's interesting enough to follow (including me), but there's quite a few other people that are.

[MasterSwordUltima]

I know I'm not the only one laughing when I read "When they find something interesting, they tweet about it".

[biggiy05]

Spring quarter started today and I had an English class this quarter. I'm dropping it because I'll miss too many days with surgery. The professor teaching said English class wants everyone to use twitter during the week. She was all excited about twitter and talked about different celebrities using it. This is a lady in her late 60's.

[Archibaldo]

I love how all of sudden Twitter is picking up among celebrities. Hasn't twitter been around for like 3 years or something?

Also, how all of a sudden, the world is discovering Skype, which has also been around for like 5 years.

Why is everybody so behind?

[MasterSwordUltima]

Skype has definitely been around for a while.

[biggiy05]

Why is everybody so behind?

Celebrities are using twitter because it's the "cool new thing" so everyone follows. It's just like music. You have bands that don't have a wide fan base then all of a sudden EVERYONE listens to said band.

[Xyvol]

Amanda Palmer has been using Twitter (http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=90535988&blogId=479299635) a lot lately. Promoting shows, giving away tickets, taking requests, organizing get togethers. At SXSW she twittered (tweeted? twat?) about having a pillow fight, and 25 people showed up w/ pillows. So for some people, it's a usefull tool. Mostly for people who have a reason to be followed. If I were to join Twitter, no one would care beacuse "sitting on my couch watching tv" is not a reason to follow me.
Biz Stone was on the Colbert Report the other night talking about Twitter. He said he thinks the reason it's been big with Celebrities is it keeps them in touch with the fans and lets them tell people directly what's going on, instead of the tabloids.
For me it's pointless. I have not signed up or subscribed to any Twitter feeds because I don't want my phone going off evey five seconds telling me someone's making a sandwich. I have certain sites I go to for my information and when I want it, I go get it. But that's just me.

[Lilith]

---

[MasterSwordUltima]

Something good that came out of twitter: My fiancee found some dude who is hardcore pretending to be in a zombie apocalypse. He updates it frequently about where he is, and getting supplies, and who is with him or who has died and all that. This is really neat, because it's like a story that keeps going, and not the average "Just got to work" junk.

[Archibaldo]

Oh man you gotta post a link to that. That actually sounds interesting enough to read.

[MasterSwordUltima]

Yeah I can't find it, so I'm going to do one myself. Sounds like something I would enjoy doing.