Fueling the fire I'm fighting: Twitter
February 13, 2009
I Hate You
Oh, Twitter. You're made of the very essence of Web 2.0: style, simplicity & hype...
I do hate you, Twitter. I hate hearing about you all the time. I hate how much of the (internet) world is now devoted to using you, talking about you (I know, I'm now guilty!), basing things off of you, serving you, worshiping you...
So, to deal with this hatred, I've been ignoring you. Not thinking about you. Skipping pretty much any article that has the word "Twitter" in it. But, alas, the within a week of each other, two (Amanda & Cody, unrelated) of my highly-respectable friends started using Twitter, and upon investigation, I noticed that a few other equally-respectable friends were using Twitter, too.
This made me pause.
After several talks with these friends - some involving Bynars - I didn't hate it as much. Still, it struck me as something I'd never want to use. Ever. But then, one late night, I (drunkenly) signed up for an account and immediately posted (or twittered) several times in 10 minutes. What had I started?!
Thoughts and Theories That Others Have Probably Already Made
I'm proud to say that I've barely used it since that first night. But, unfortunately, I've been thinking about it a lot. Here are some quick highlights, because I feel like I've been too long-winded already:
- It's so banal. And I think that's the thing with twitter: it encourages banality. It might not be possible to do anything except banality with twitter. The limits on post length make certain that most posts will be completely pointless and/or uninteresting. Why not just use a blog where you can keep your posts to less than 140 characters if you choose, or, when the occasion calls for it, extend your posts as long as necessary? If your immediate answer is simplicity, well, my immediate response is tumblr. (btw, I refuse 2 use txt spk 2 try to fit more words in 2 my posts.)
- Twitter automatically comes built in with a certain percentage of 'noise' (in a signal-to-noise type evaluation). The method of addressing twitters (twits?) to other people with the '@' symbol is easy, but also a detriment. To the best of my knowledge (and correct me if i'm wrong) these messages to other people get broadcast to everyone following your twitter stream. So, unless you actually enjoy seeing your friends say things like "@jorge123: hahaha yeah. u r right" all the time, you're out of luck, because you'll see loads of these even-more-banal-because-you're-not-involved-at-all conversations. A simple solution would be if Twitter let you control how you see these @SomeoneElse posts. I would love change the settings on a person-by-person basis. But, alas, Twitter is about simplicity, and this necessary functionality (as we'll see later) apparently doesn't make the cut.
- Perhaps my biggest complaint, even though it is not really an issue just yet: friend creep. In case you haven't heard this term, this is what happens when someone you don't know very well, like a co-worker or classmate, adds you as a friend on a social network. You begrudgingly accept, so as to not offend, and then you try ignore that person's posts. This is why "no one" uses Friendster anymore (sorry Vern)... This is why MySpace is out and Facebook is in... Although still in its infancy, Twitter is indeed a social network, and it will inevitably fall to the same fate at the hands of friend creep. And unless they institute some good filters soon (see previous paragraph), they'll meet that fate sooner than most social networks.
- I will credit Twitter with being a little interesting at times... for instance: the other day, when US Airways Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River here in NYC, news and info spread incredibly fast about it, at least in some part due to Twitter. In turn, I read about it on a blog less than an hour after it happened. Alright. Go Twitter, this time. But the chain-reaction speed it can have is not always good. Think, for instance, about how those "Steve Jobs is dead/dying" rumors spread so fast and so pervasively each time Steve does just about anything these days. Ugh. Great. Twitter is a speed-of-light sewing circle. Grand. (I should point out that the crash in the Hudson is the ONLY time I can think of Twitter actually being useful in this way. Hell, come to think of it, I don't even know if anything would have been different that day if Twitter didn't exist. I would have seen and read the same stuff.)
- As it stands now, Twitter is a redundant service... A service that hasn't got a home... A service that is finding itself. From my point of view, it's main competitors (which were already somewhat redundant with each other) are Facebook, IM, tumblr and text-messaging:
- Facebook essentially has the services Twitter provides already built in by way of one's status update and wall. Facebook is also a huge and powerful force, with an equally huge user base and financier base.
- IM's away messages were most likely the inspiration for this particular service Facebook and Twitter offer. Facebook and Gmail (and so many others) have added IM-like chatting (and sometimes IM itself) to their own services, making IMing even more ubiquitous than it already was.
- Tumblr is a relative lightweight when compared with Facebook and IMing, and perhaps even when compared to Twitter. But as I mentioned before, it, to me, seems like a much more practical implementation of Twitter's ideals. Short Twitter-like posts are encouraged, but not necessary. A post could also be just a photo. Or just a song. Or several paragraphs of text. But the interface is simple, as are references to other users. Compared to tumblr, Twitter is basically just text-messaging.
- With growing popularity of smartphones (especially the iPhone) and, in turn, unlimited data plans, the line between text-messaging and IMing is blurring. The iPhones threaded text-messages is highly reminiscent of IMs. And smartphones' numerous IM applications let people IM from their phones instead of (or even in addition to) text-message.
- Related to the Facebook, IM, tumblr and text-messaging bit: I just want some of these to die off now. Reduce redundancy. Until smartphones (and thereby unlimited data plans) are more prevalent, text-messaging will not vanish. Facebook is too powerful right now to die. Tumblr is in its infancy and isn't causing as big a commotion as any of these other things did, as far as I can tell, so of these things, I'd say it's most likely to die. This would be unfortunate, as I think it's a better alternative than Twitter. As mentioned before, IMing is getting consumed by other services, so it seems to be the healthiest of all. Like the Ancients in the Stargate universe, it's transcended it's original medium and immortally thrives in a higher plane of existence. If Twitter does not die quickly, then this is the fate I wish for it. As far as I know, it can already be embedded into other things, so I just wish it would go and replace Facebook's statuses and walls.
For a while, Twitter's business model intrigued me (and is apparently a hot topic for many others, too). I have not read about it, though... merely speculated in my own head. At first, I assumed there was no business plan and they were just some folks who made this thing for fun. Then, when I realized how huge it was getting, I figured that there must be some sort of revenue-making planned. The first thing I thought of was ads. Maybe they'll take a cue from Google and have contextual ads along the side of the page. Maybe they'll piss me off and put the ads between the posts. But now, my current theory is that they're just looking to sell the service for a large chunk of money. I'm sure there are plenty of offers rolling in, and they're just holding out for a really big fish. As a fellow aspiring-web-entrepreneur (just you wait!), I honestly wish them luck with this plan (if it is actually their plan), and I hope they can sell Twitter before it starts losing its momentum (as I have stated (proved?) will happen).
The Power Of Love*
or perhaps...
Roads? Where We're Going, We Don't Need Roads*
In the end, though, as with most (all?) hot new technologies that I've initially resisted, I'll meet and/or date a cute girl who will cause me to warm up, because she'll use twitter all the time. First there was the cellphone, then MySpace, then text messaging... It's happened before, and it will happen again, no doubt.
(Thanks for reading this HUGE post, and please stay tuned for my next post about Twitter which will undoubtedly (judging by this article) be called 'Twitter' Is Synonymous With 'Banal.')
Posts
February 13, 2009 at 7:49 AM
I don't know about anyone else, Joe, but I certainly appreciate the irony of posting a 5-paragraph rant about a micro-blogging service.
February 13, 2009 at 12:22 PM
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA.
February 13, 2009 at 2:45 PM
Twitter is just another passing fancy, like Facebook, like MySpace, etc. ;) I'm on Twitter have been 'friended' by spam people, I suppose, but I do find Twitter usedful for news feeds and keeping up with particular online vendors, etc.
February 14, 2009 at 2:11 AM
More interesting reading: http://lewmoorman.com/googles-first-real-threat-twit.
February 14, 2009 at 11:56 AM
I hate twitter.
My feelings for this worthless waste of idea space could not have been more summed up in such an eloquent and thorough post. I like social networks, I like keeping in touch with people, especially people that I may have once worked with at video stores that I have not seen in probably near on two years now. But the redundancy kills me. And there is something in me that just says no. I am on Facebook, I have a bunch of friends I like to keep up with. What you are on Twitter? That's nice., I hope it works out for you. Because I refuse, REFUSE! To check two social networks (more often than not with the same people on each).
I am waiting for the iPhone App that will let me post my status in Facebook and immediatley update Twitter. Post a picture to Flikr, Picassa, and immediatley show up in Myspace/ Facebook. But then again I am such and anti-fan of the huge out of touch UIs that I would probably not even use it.
Anyhow, the long short is I know what you mean.
February 14, 2009 at 3:20 PM
Cody:
I don't know about that article. The short: I think I disagree with almost every word in that article. The long: my next post about Twitter will address this. In fact, my next post about Twitter will exist specifically to address this. For a preview, feel free to read this response link found in the comments to that article. My post might touch on some of those points, but they didn't mention what I think are some of the biggest points.