Last night at the Institute for Political Journalism's Board of
Visitors meeting, Tim Carney and I found ourselves explaining
Twitter to our colleagues. It wasn't a defense of the practice,
really. The participants are all eager to learn about new things
and how the students benefit from them. But Tim and I both had to
be fairly self-deprecating about it, as anyone should be, because
Twitter is, in fact, a really dumb trend.
Now, to be clear: Tech crazes are, in fact, crazes. Remember when
"Email Lists" first came about, and forwards to massive people?
And how we STILL see people yelling at each other about whether
or not something was appropriate? Have you seen someone
on a Segway? Remember when it was being touted as a revolution?
Then everyone started blogging on their own, offering thoughts
that would make Jose Ortega y Gassett choke. When it came to
family stuff, it was great going. Some people started thinking
more seriously about writing that otherwise might not have. But
others got silly.
The nice thing about Twitter, then, is that you can't do many
stupid things with 140 characters.
Except you can. At the moment, I have almost 1200 followers on
Twitter (which makes me sound like a cult leader). The rule is
that when someone follows you, you should be polite and follow
them back. I'll admit that sometimes it's nice to hear about a
mom who just got back from taking her family to soccer practice.
It's a reminder of the what real life is like. But it's
an interruption -- and so many tweets are just that. It's noise,
and the more people you follow on Twitter, the more noise you
get.
Which is the problem. Like blogs and email lists, there's no
common practice that encourages people to think about what
they're saying and how it impacts others. Or, heck, to figure out
if what they're saying is worth it. It's self-indulgent to the
worst degree.
As for it being a good way of disseminating information, sure.
But the smaller networks, not larger networks, allow meaningful
relationships to filter out useless information. You can use
social programs like Twitter to meet new people, but that meeting
is useless unless you develop that relationship. The rules of
networking apply even on the Internet.
Which brings me to this video, which has completely discouraged
me from going on my massive Twitter account for anything other
than professional reasons:
thuzl| 3.25.09 @ 2:24PM
I prefer to call it "twitting" as opposed to "tweeting."
It just seems more appropriate.
WendyG| 3.25.09 @ 4:16PM
I signed up for Twitter but so far I don't get what's so great about it. I prefer Facebook.
Patrice Lee| 3.27.09 @ 10:47AM
PatricePinkFile @JPFreire says so true. too often ppl abuse twitter. follow journalism and PR pros. leave rest for the twits.