March 26, 2007
Ed on Twitter
I feel that the whole Twitter exercise is less of a social experiment and more of a way to rifle through anything I have to say so that people can sell me things somewhere down the line or so “friends” who are less concerned with who I am and more concerned with what I can purchase can form some kind of deranged impression of who I am. I have no proof, of course; only instinct. I do know that Twitter was set up by Obvious Corporation, a corporation led by one-time Blogger head man Evan Williams, who once worked at Google and who likely learned some inside information about how Google keeps track of user data
Link (see also kottke on twitter)
Are there any flockers using twitter?
comments
every since kottke recommended it, I’ve been trying to take a look, but I can’t get through. are they having major server troubles? have you had any luck / tried it?
I haven’t tried it, but a perusal of the site didn’t impress me. Then again, none of my friend’s are on it. Kottke and I can certainly agree on that.
well, if I can ever get on, maybe we should set up a clusterflock contingent (if that’s even the way it works).
I don’t get it. I’ve tried to get it- and the nerds that I trust like it. But try as I might, I don’t understand the need to tell people what I’m up to on a minute-to-minute basis.
I think it is and I’m game.
I still can’t even get the friggin site to load!!!!!!!
I had it once about twenty minutes ago.
pssht. i’m so suggestible to internet nonsense. I’m on.
awesome.
http://twitter.com/andrew_simone
“Using” Twitter? I keep reading articles about it, and I have an account, and occasionally I read or post (I subscribe to two friends’ feeds, but only one of them follows mine), but I just don’t see what it might be used for.
Then again, that was pretty much my attitude toward blogs for the first year or two. A visionary I am not.
I get it now. sorry kottke.
“I don’t understand the need to tell people what I’m up to on a minute-to-minute basis.” (Mary Jeys)
Yeah. I’m more likely to feel a need to conceal what I’m up on a minute-by-minute basis.
I like to think of it as mini-blogging.
Yeah, what Sheila said.
As for mini-blogging, I guess it depends on what you look for in a blog. To me, Twitter seems an awful lot like the blogs of Ye Early Days, or the stereotypical teenager’s blog–”Blaaaah!! Here’s what I’m thinking, with no context or editing!” Not that there’s no value in that, but it’s something that’s going to be of interest to a pretty small audience, e.g., people who know you and who like to be reminded that you’re alive.
I expect that after people have been Twittering for a while–and maybe this is already happening–we’ll start seeing interesting projects developing in this medium. You could use it as a haiku distribution system, for instance. Or you could write exquisite corpse stories. You know, some artsy shit like that. I don’t know.
But Twittering for its supposed official purpose, I just don’t get it.
Now that I’ve been goofing with it for about 12 hours, I’m kind of seeing it’s addictive-ness. It seems like it’s closer to IMing than blogging though. A friend described that it has practical applications like if a bunch of people are at a conference, twitter allows you to know where your peeps are and know a bit about what their digesting. (intellectually, of course.) Who knows if I’ll stick with it though, its novelty may soon wear off.
Yeah, see, I don’t get IM, either. Who the fuck has time for that? I’m distracted enough as it is.