[Technology Tuesday] Why I Don’t Twitter
Yesterday, I mentioned that I’m taking a break from Internet “chatter” by avoiding commenting on large forums and ignoring my Facebook account entirely. But don’t think this is the first time I’ve waged a personal war against wasting time with Internet “chatter”. Last year, I decided to stop using Internet chat services like AIM, Google Talk and Yahoo! Messenger because I realized I was wasting far too much time instant messaging people. And I’ve been avoiding Twitter like crazy, because, in my mind, it represents the absolute worst things that social networking has to offer.
Allow me to explain… though it will take me more than 140 characters, I’m afraid.
For those who don’t know, Twitter is a social network where users are limited to 140-character “tweets,” which are similar to the status updates one might see on Facebook. Twitter is very much about the here and now — people get on there and post trivial details about every moment of their life, like “Sean is brushing his teeth,” or “Sean is sipping a cup of tea,” or “Sean is going to the movies, if you want to join him.” The appeal of Twitter is that it can be updated from a mobile phone as easily as from an Internet-capable device, so people can have a place to post their comings and goings online, in real time, for the rest of the world to see. Users can also follow other members’ Twitter accounts to get a real-time “news feed” that tells them what their friends are doing.
Now, I completely understand why Twitter is popular with younger people — when I was a teenager, I often announced where I was going and what I was doing to my online friends, with very little discretion. My friends did the same thing. We didn’t have Twitter, so we used our away messages. It made me feel connected to other people to share these mundane details and to presume they were interested. I also enjoyed the idea that my friends who were local could see that I was out at the mall, head over, and find me if they wanted to hang out. We didn’t have cell phones at the time either, so seeing them was generally a nice surprise. (Believe it or not, this was just 10 years ago… I’m not as old as I sound!)
But while I’m sympathetic, I’m also concerned about the dependence that I’ve seen many young people develop towards Twitter (and Myspace and Facebook, for that matter). For some of them, Twitter is a crutch — the moment they feel bored with life, they’re checking Twitter on their mobile phones and looking to see if anyone else is having a good time. Instead of having real experiences, they’re living vicariously through their friends, which I would suggest is a pretty dull way to spend your youth. For others, Twitter is a competition — they go out and do crazy things so they can make their lives sound like they’re fresh and exciting and full of parties. Some of them even lie in their tweets so they can sound more exciting than they really are. They tweet so they can get attention, because even though they’re presumably having all this fun, it’s no good unless the world is watching.
And then there are the worst of the bunch — the twitter-marketers. Now, keep in mind — I am a marketing professional, and I’m working on my Master of Marketing Research degree. I love marketing. But I absolutely hate it when people pose as my friend because they want to try to rope me in to their multi-level marketing scheme or push some crummy website on me. I hate it when companies want me to follow their tweets so I can give them feedback about their products and a forum to advertise other products. I also hate it when my friends get their accounts hijacked and their accounts begin bombarding me with ads for porn sites, pharmaceutical sales sites and scam sites.
Many of my friends who use Twitter are also intereted in following celebrity tweets, blogger tweets, and fictional character tweets. I really scratch my head in these situations, because it just don’t make any sense to me. I suppose being connected on Twitter makes normal people feel closer to these personalities, and gives them some sort of sense of ownership or empowerment. Maybe it’s like being part of an exclusive club. I don’t know — it has very little appeal to me, because I don’t see the point of knowing every little detail about the life of someone who craves the attention of the public. I find it much easier to admire and respect people when I don’t bring myself into contact with their foibles and their flaws. Twitter makes it very hard for me to avoid those things.
So, there you have it — Twitter’s just not for me. But beyond that, let me ask a more important question that I’m sure I’ll never receive a satisfactory answer to — is it really, truly helpful to anyone? Your comments are welcome.
And before you bring up the situation where Stephen Fry was trapped in an elevator and Twittered his way out, just remember — he had a mobile phone, and didn’t need Twitter to secure help. Twitter was just a way to pass the time while he waited for it to arrive.
[Technology Tuesday] | SeanJJordan | 
April 13, 2009 11:24 pm
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By Thom, June 5, 2009 @ 11:32 am
Twitter is what you make it. It’s a website with a box you can type stuff into. It’s for jokes, for links, for news, for marketing (which you claim to know something about), and whatever the hell you want. Don’t make it more than it is, and don’t dismiss it because you don’t understand it.