Yesterday, three people invited me to join Twitter. Three. I can therefore assume that Twitter has reached some kind of tipping point / critical mass. I always know that when something reaches me it is, basically, past it.
I have no intention of joining Twitter. Repeat: no intention. However, if you are desperate for me to join Twitter so you can follow my every move with forensic attention, merely programme your computer to tweet you the following activities, repeatedly, in a random order.
Marie is stuck on her novel.
Marie is thinking of having a nap.
Marie has forgotten to do her back stretches again.
Marie needs to buy more cucumber.
Marie should be reading but is messing around online.
Marie is playing scrabble.
Marie is going out.
Marie is running slightly late.
That's my life! That's it! All of it! ALL OF IT! YOU DO NOT NEED ME TWITTERING MY LIFE!
Now, I am going out. I am running slightly late.
See?
Employee gets laid off due to extreme body odor: ‘I genuinely felt bad for
him. He had only just started the job and hadn’t really had the chance to
show what he could contribute. You could tell he felt embarrassed and
ashamed’
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To pass the smell test
I felt really identified with this story because I've had to deal with this
issue multiple times in my life. I don't mean with my bo...
2 hours ago
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11 comments:
Once you see how many minor celebrities do it too, I give you 6 months before you succumb.
It is a waste of time, but I'm strangely into seeing what little details fill the days of others.
No one has invited me to join Twitter (aside from Stevyn Colgan, but that was just a general suggestion to his readership). I guess that's because I'm not a celebrity of any description. I've grown to see the point of blogging, and I've gradually come to see the point of Facebook, but, try as I might, I've failed so far to "get" Twitter. Even really interesting people are pretty boring Twitterers. I'm not interesting at all. Persephone is:
...commenting on other people's blogs to avoid blogging herself.
...blogging to avoid answering emails and making phonecalls.
...answering emails to avoid housework.
...doing housework to avoid making phonecalls.
...looking up stuff on David Tennant to avoid everything.
That pretty much covers it.
Ooh I'm out of cucumber too. Spooky.
As I don't get AT ALL the facility on Facebook which allows people to announce to the world what they are doing at any precise moment (like wtf cares? is my response), I get this even less... OTOH the Facebook thingy did allow me to discover that friends of mine were ok after the Mumbai bombing so it does have its uses. I think all this twittering about Twitter is cos the papers have suddenly started writing about how much Stephen Fry is into it, and as we all know he practically invented the internet after running out on that show all those years ago, so what's good enough for Stephen...
Jane, 'twas Al Gore that invented the Interweb. (American politics mash-up!)
I've never tried Twitter. Does anyone ever post that what they're doing at the moment that they're updating what they're doing is...Twittering? 'Cos that's what they're really doing at that time. They may post that they're baking a nice loaf of wholemeal bread but actually they're anticipating baking it or they have already put the loaf in the oven or whatever, and what they are really doing at that one particular moment is...Twittering.
Describing Twitter as a 'micro-blogging platform' is a bit misleading. Yes, there is an aspect of that, and yes, it's a bit redundant. But it's also a hellishly interesting, not to mention useful social networking tool.
It helps if you run Twitter through some client software like Tweetdeck, then you can see updates as they happen and comment on what other people are saying. It's like a twenty-four hour party filled with people you know, journalists and celebrities.
Example: I have a fair few people following me. I can ask a question or for advice and more often than not, someone will come back with an answer very quickly and I can do the same for them. When I wanted an invite to Spotify, four people came back with offers within minutes.
Another example: When Google went down a few weeks ago, a quick check at search.twitter.com confirmed that it was something that was happening to the whole world and I didn't in fact have a virus.
Also: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=+Marie+Phillips
If you follow Mrs Trefusis it's EXACTLY like reading the 'spotted' page of Heat magazine, but higher class. Is that not sufficient temptation?
SIB makes some good points about the actual exchange/conversation uses of twitter but basically I just don't get it. Or frankly have time. Don't people have JOBS????
Clearly I am a Luddite...
Lisa: That's what's amazing about it. People seem to be conducting their business through Twitter. I'm learning all kinds of weird and wonderful things about how the media works and because it's such an instant form of communication and easily graspable, the take up and sustained usage is greater than even blogging.
"It's like a twenty-four hour party filled with people you know, journalists and celebrities."
I can't think of anything I'd dislike more.
Ooh like a moth to a flame I'm drawn to a good old Twitter discussion. Fact is, I *love* it. If it really was a list of Facebook style updates then yup, it'd be the dullest site on earth, but it's the conversational element that makes it fun and incredibly useful. I very rarely say what I'm doing, most of the time I'm reacting to other people, or squeeing over a photo posted by Danny Wallace of himself and Tim Minchin having a drink. (http://twitpic.com/1emuz)
Stuart has pretty much explained what makes it great, and he's right to point out that you've got to run it through Tweetdeck or Twitterfox so that you get pop-up alerts to the updates in real time.
(*waves*)
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