What's the big deal with TWITTER?

[Parnelli Bone]

Twitter has become such a huge phenomenon in these past few months. Personally, I don't get it. It seems like a glorified bulletin board, does it not? It also seems (for those who are super-social on the site) that one can make a comment (TWEET ) which SERIOUSLY screws him or her later on.

In other words, if somebody says something which slights someone else, or posts something questionable, the possibility is there that (later on) this info could come back to haunt BIG TIME . In real-life, I can say something to a friend of mine during an hour-long conversation, but then say "don't tell anybody else, it's a secret." On Twitter, it seems the goal is the opposite...the goal seems to be "let's share as much as possible out in the open for all to see!" It seems (again, assuming the tweeter is super-social on TWITTER) much easier to get caught up in a public "conversation" of Tweets without thought of how these comments might affect the future.

During a normal conversation in a bar, for instance, lots of questionable stuff can be said between two people who are drinking. Let's say most of it is sarcastic. Since these two people are face-to-face, there is an understanding that things aren't to be taken seriously. And the next day, all is forgotten. But on Twitter (and any social site, for that matter) these comments are somewhat PERMANENT. Somebody could write something sarcastic, and another person months later could stilll read it, totally NOT getting the original sarcasm. This happens all the time on the 'net, anyways. It's happened to me here at GTP a few times, and then an argument usually follows. Even if no harm was meant at the beginning.

If I'm not mistaken, is it possible to later erase such tweets? Or are they truely permanent?

Person A could say something derogatory about Person B on the site. Hardly anybody notices or comments or cares about this derogatory comment. Then months later, it turns out Person B happens to be in a position to HELP Person A get a job, or find a spouse, or whatever. But then Person B catches wind of something Person A said LONG AGO on the dumb Twitter site about him or her. Opportunity blown!

I realize MySpace and Friendster and Tribe and Facebook (etc) offer the same possibilities, but on TWITTER, it seems everything is even less personalized. Information is given in a freer sense, and then (assuming the poster forgets what was said) that information can stay there, forever for all to see, 'till the Earth or internet dies. It's like a permanent chat room.

I mean, I've said plenty of questionable things here at GTP, for instance; but it's all under the pseudonym "Parnelli Bones". I'm not putting up my real info, my real picture, my girlfriend's picture, my location, etc. There is some seperation between my Facebook account and my MySpace account and GTP, ya dig? I've made these accounts because I want to keep up with what my real-life friends are up to (shows, events and whatnot).

But.....


I REFUSE to get caught up in the twitter hype!

I don't care if my real-life friends get on TWITTER (and some of them certainly will),....that's where I draw the line!

 

[Jedi2016]

It's just a fad. Give it a few more months, and no one will care.

 

[Parnelli Bone]

It's just a fad. Give it a few more months, and no one will care.

Funny, that was something I meant to write in my original post, but forgot.

O/T: Bing is supposed to be the next big thing in search engines. Just three days ago I'd never heard of it, now it's all over the 'net. Wonder what the difference is supposed to be.

 

[Duke]

It's developed/backed by Microsoft. Which means I'll never use it.

 

[Omnis]

Twitter is only good for sending notes to Freedom Watch on Fox.

 

[nick09]

I once did make a myspace account but I never used it. Twitter is only used by people who want information now and in a smaller form called notes.

My US history teacher uses bing for class as the school's IT technicians removed flash in all of the computers in school. Though he only can watch the videos on the search page.

 

[Parnelli Bone]

Part of the reason I started this thread is because I personally know somebody who got fired from her job due to a slew of comments (and half-naked pic) on MySpace. How about you? Do you know anybody who's been in trouble thru a net page?

Personally, I try and keep my MySpace & Facebook pages as generic as possible. A few good pics from the past (I'm wearing clothes in all of them of course) and a few bland comments. Anybody who wants to get to know me better has to meet me in real-life! So my networking-site pages are rather bland (they're not "Pimped" lol), and that's the way they're gonna stay.

Perhaps I'm biased (since I'm 42 and getting more cynical as I get older), and am only seeing the possible bad sides of twitter. I know there's plenty of good sides, as well. But like I said: I don't get it! It's just a bulletin board!

 

[Radracing]

I think what applies in real life applies in any social sites on the web and especialy anything in the public domain of the web. If you don't have anything nice to say about someone "don't", keep your personal life personal. Especially semi, half or full provocative pictures of yourself. I don't mean to sound prude but thats just common sense etiqute on how to behave in public. It dosen't mean you can't have fun and act crazy but keep it to yourself and personal friends. Don't publish it on the web. We all know how that affects all celebrities and thats why they like to keep personal things private. Only the dumb ones stupid enough to not care always gets into trouble with it. They always seem to want to be in the limelight well news flash!!!! People like to talk.

 

[Northstar]

I prefer this thing called human contact.

 

[Sage]

Part of the reason I started this thread is because I personally know somebody who got fired from her job due to a slew of comments (and half-naked pic) on MySpace. How about you? Do you know anybody who's been in trouble thru a net page?

It’s really easy to not get in trouble through the net – every major social networking site has privacy settings. On both my Facebook and Twitter pages, I have to explicitly accept your friend request for you to see anything on my account. And business contacts only get added to my LinkedIn account.

 

[Stevisiov]

I prefer this thing called human contact.

You mean when you use a webcam or something?

 

[Moglet]

I can't remember where I read this, but here's a quote that sums up Twitter perfectly for me;

"Twitter is like having a mobile phone that makes outgoing calls which people ignore, and that can only receive calls from Stephen Fry except when you try to talk back he doesn't want to listen"

 

[Jondot]

I can't stand twitter. As fads go, it's one I just can't get on board with - mainly because nobody I know actually uses the thing (and so I'd just be twittering to myself), but also because of its other flaws (as mentioned in Parnelli's first post.

The other thing that frustrates me about these types of things (Facebook statuses included) is that certain people tend to use them to say things that they wouldn't dream of saying in real life. Or rather, things that they wouldn't dream of shouting at all of their friends with a megaphone. It's not so much the 'I'm stuck in a traffic jam' or 'I can't work out which brand of soya milk to buy' ones, but the ones where people just say things that shouldn't be announced to the entire world.

I've seen countless people on my 'friends' lists have arguments which each other via Facebook statuses, purely because one of them can't resist reciting their feelings to the entire world. And call me proud, but there are some things you just don't announce to the world - I wouldn't dream of sticking up 'Jon is tired of feeling so lonely' or something, even if I was tired of feeling so lonely... Sorry, but I wouldn't announce that in public, so why would I do it over Facebook? Similarly, I can't see why I'd announce that my scab fell off or that my sunburn is peeling. If I was at a dinner party and the host announced that, I think I'd excuse myself and then promptly make an escape out of their toilet window.

I also feel this odd hatred for anyone who 'artistically' quotes their favourite Lady GaGa song every 2-3 minutes. 'Can't read my Poker face' - I'm sure I can't, now kindly shut up. Or people that are so madly lusting after someone that they pick a song to match their 'feelings' (presumably under the assumption that the other party will see it and realise they're talking about them). If you want to date someone, frigging ask them out!


Anyway, that's the end of my ramblings...

 

[Solid Lifters]

It's just another stupid-named website to draw your attention, just like 'Yahoo!', 'Facebook' and 'YouTube.' I look forward to the day all these websites combine together to form the biggest time-wasting site on the planet; "www.youtwitfaceyahoo.com"

 

[beau99]

Twitter a fad, huh?

Let's just say... if it were I fad, I'd refuse to use it.

And since I use it, well...I don't think it's a fad, anyway. Saves me time on writing full blog entries when I don't feel like it.

 

[Moglet]

That reminds me beau (this isn't aimed at you), another thing;

If anyone's life is so uninteresting that they can replace a blog with a 'tweet' that contains less than 140 characters there are more serious problems afoot than the use of social networking websites.

I will admit, however to annoying people with my Facebook status updates just because I can. Last night I just put 'Lloyd Morgan, yes or no?', managed to confuse a few people.

 

[mafia_boy]

Parnelli, I'm with you man. 👍

Twitter absolutely 🤬's me to the n'th degree. I'm sorry, Facebook is bad enough (unless you're scouring for hot 18-19yr old chicks trashed at nightclubs, then it's hilarious action shots aplenty! ), where (in my case) the in-laws deliberately start fights with my wife, etc. but then you've got people like Ellen DeGeneres going onto TV and saying to everyone, "come on everybody, get onboard twitter, it's great!! I'm only learning how to use it now, but it's great!!". People like this shouldn't be let near a PC, period!! How they've even got the ability to turn the PC on in the first place is amazing enough!!

Then, to illustrate the past few days.....you have people like Shaq getting onto twitter to bag out Dwight Howard, and other sports writers on ESPN boasting "I've got a twitter page!". Here's a tweet for you all......nobody cares!! If we did, we would read your crappy sports articles (and I'm a sports fan!) and comments and would run our lives by what you all say on twitter!!

I don't mind people being personal with their webpages for blogging and videos, that's why Facebook, Myspace, bebo and Youtube are there....but tweeting?? Give me a break, please!!

 

[MisterWeary]

I think Twitter has a place. One of the cool things about it is it's versatile. I don't use it to post anything about myself, I use it to follow people/services that are of interest...I guess I'm kind of using it like RSS, I follow news.com.au for instance and Lance Armstrong. I was a sceptic but it's pretty groovy 👍

 

[YSSMAN]

From the Desk of YSSMAN,
A Dedicated Twitter User

A long time ago, there was a point in which Twitter was an all-new, fancy service that not many people knew about. The user base was small, but there was a wide variety of awesome content that you couldn't see on Facebook (dying) or MySpace (dead, soulless zombie). If I'm totally honest, I didn't get it at first. But when I started using it, it made a lot of sense. I could keep in touch with a few of my "in" friends at school, while also following some "celebrities" that I had been in contact with before.

Frankly, I agree with some of the Twitter hate as it has grown far beyond what it was ever intended to be, fueled by this unnecessary attention by the mainstream media and other "wagon hoppers" who started doing it in the last three to six months. Studies have shown that 90% of the content on Twitter is produced by only 10% of the user base, which isn't exactly surprising, but is totally necessary for Twitter to start cleaning house. I blame a lot of this unnecessary bloat on Ashton Kucher, Ellen DeGeneres, CNN and FOX News, adding users to the system that bring nothing to the service. Sure, its nice to have a few extra followers who are just people looking to fill their counts, but I'd rather have legitimate networks being made with people you actually conversate with.

In summation, I find that Twitter is an easy way to stay in touch with friends locally, get some quirky news that you wouldn't otherwise receive, and getting to hear from the origional Twitter "celebrities" is a nice thing. Getting messages on my phone from Xavier, hearing about the production of the next episode of TRS, getting some Mac rumors from Kevin Rose, or reading some new hilarious declaration of awesome by Cobra Commander makes my day. Sure, I'd love to have it go back to the way it was (I could say the same thing about Facebook), but it won't for a while. Until then, it will be up to the early Twitter users to find "the next big thing."

 

[Robin]

I dont buy into these fads, I also dont get twitter, its like MSN but worse! Also it goes the one step further and makes it open to EVERYONE on the web to see it. So its even worse than Facebook!

AND ofcourse there is always the other stuff about it coming back to haunt you, companies firing or not hiring you because of whats on the web and the fact its hard to get rid of once its out there.

But I guess im in the minority as its really big now.

 

[TsukubaTrueno]

I prefer tumblr. I made an account the other day and it is much simpler than Twitter. I don't really blog, but this is kind of new to me so I gave it a try. I don't use it much, but it's pretty cool. 👍

 

[Keef]

I find that none of my friends really use the internet all that much. Most of them crack jokes on me all the time for being a forum user. Then when they come up with a joke and I blast it with "4Chan did that 3 years ago" they get all mad at me for it!

So Twitter and Facebook never caught on with me, though I do have a Myspace account I check into occasionally. At least that's one way I get to share pictures and stuff with friends who aren't frequent net users.

 

[beau99]

That reminds me beau (this isn't aimed at you), another thing;

If anyone's life is so uninteresting that they can replace a blog with a 'tweet' that contains less than 140 characters there are more serious problems afoot than the use of social networking websites.

Oh, absolutely.

Also, my Twitter account and my Facebook account are synchronized. I did that so I only need to go to Facebook to directly communicate with someone. Facebook's so bloated now that it actually slows down my computer.

Also, I follow a few celebrities on Twitter and rarely, I will reply to one of their tweets directly. In addition, when I actually do have time to make a full blog post, I will link my followers to my posts so they can read if they wish.

 

[Parnelli Bone]

It’s really easy to not get in trouble through the net – every major social networking site has privacy settings. On both my Facebook and Twitter pages, I have to explicitly accept your friend request for you to see anything on my account. And business contacts only get added to my LinkedIn account.

Lots of people aren't as sensible as you and me about these things. Don't know how old you are, but I wonder (if I were 18 right now) if I would wind up being one not as cautious about social sites as I am now.

It's just another stupid-named website to draw your attention, just like 'Yahoo!', 'Facebook' and 'YouTube.' I look forward to the day all these websites combine together to form the biggest time-wasting site on the planet; "www.youtwitfaceyahoo.com"

Parnelli, I'm with you man. 👍

Twitter absolutely 🤬's me to the n'th degree. I'm sorry, Facebook is bad enough (unless you're scouring for hot 18-19yr old chicks trashed at nightclubs, then it's hilarious action shots aplenty! ), where (in my case) the in-laws deliberately start fights with my wife, etc. but then you've got people like Ellen DeGeneres going onto TV and saying to everyone, "come on everybody, get onboard twitter, it's great!! I'm only learning how to use it now, but it's great!!". People like this shouldn't be let near a PC, period!! How they've even got the ability to turn the PC on in the first place is amazing enough!!

Then, to illustrate the past few days.....you have people like Shaq getting onto twitter to bag out Dwight Howard, and other sports writers on ESPN boasting "I've got a twitter page!". Here's a tweet for you all......nobody cares!! If we did, we would read your crappy sports articles (and I'm a sports fan!) and comments and would run our lives by what you all say on twitter!!

I don't mind people being personal with their webpages for blogging and videos, that's why Facebook, Myspace, bebo and Youtube are there....but tweeting?? Give me a break, please!!

I'll say something good about Facebook. Just the other day a group of TKE brothers from my college days wrote to me. These were guys who joined a fraternity (while I declined) but we were enormous drinking buds back in the day. I literally haven't spoken to these guys in 20 years, and it's been a blast catching up with them (more than half my responses are private, tho).

I know for a fact if it weren't for Facebook, I would have never caught up with any of them. 👍

I think Twitter has a place. One of the cool things about it is it's versatile. I don't use it to post anything about myself, I use it to follow people/services that are of interest...I guess I'm kind of using it like RSS, I follow news.com.au for instance and Lance Armstrong. I was a sceptic but it's pretty groovy 👍

👍 LIke I said, there are some beneficial things about it, I'm sure. 👍 Again, you seem more like a sensible user of the site than some of the things I'm hearing.



Anybody want to answer my question: is it possible to erase tweets after they've been posted? or are they permanent, like in a typical chat room.

 

[Diego440]

perhaps this will clear the air further, regarding Twitter