mckitterick: (winged-inklin)
mckitterick ([personal profile] mckitterick) wrote2009-01-12 09:58 am

Twitter: I don't get it.

Do you? If so, what am I not getting? Mostly, I find "tweets" irritating and lacking in anything I'd want to read. Despite the cute name.

Chris

[identity profile] piezocuttlefish.livejournal.com 2009-01-12 04:23 pm (UTC)(link)
I totally get Twitter, even though I don't use it. Yet.

My step-family and close friends use Twitter, getting updates on their Blackberries. The community to which they've subscribed is small and pertinent to their lives, so it's not like receiving facebook updates. Really, do I care what this person I met at band camp in 1993 is doing this week? Probably not. However, with people who are close, receiving a twitter is a bit of unexpected emotional captial. It's like looking over to see the photograph you keep of the person on your desk during the day, only it's an actual message from the person. With a small group, Twitter can be used to create solidarity across a city, even in a public place. Twittering during Thanksgiving dinner provided my brothers a number of good laughs by being a humourous metaconversation. Its push nature makes it more rewarding than any sort of online forum. Then again, if you have any website, like LJ or OKcupid, automatically update you when someone sends you a message, you're already experiencing some of the joy of Twitter.

[identity profile] chernobylred.livejournal.com 2009-01-12 04:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Twittering during Thanksgiving dinner provided my brothers a number of good laughs by being a humourous metaconversation.

I can see how this would be a wonderful way to use the format for people who couldn't attend a family function. Good idea!

[identity profile] mckitterick.livejournal.com 2009-01-12 04:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Okay, now that's I can understand. Me, I'm someone who doesn't even check my cell-phone for messages or texts very often.

[identity profile] piezocuttlefish.livejournal.com 2009-01-12 04:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah. I can imagine that while stargazing, reading, writing, working on cars, et cetera, Twitter would be utterly irrelevant. Wrong headspace. Twitter is probably most useful when you're already being social.