Don't waste time or time will waste you ([info]phyxius) wrote,
@ 2009-03-01 00:30:00
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Current music:The Shield - S01E07

Anyone who doesn't "get" Twitter seems to focus on the egotism and boringness of the possible answers to the question "what are you doing?", which is how Twitter frames itself. And they're right. But the most interesting tweets on my stream dont answer that question. More often, they answer "what's on your mind right now?". Twitter is valuable for its ability to spread information to lots of people immediately. Any information. Memes, links, videos, news, spontaneous gatherings online and off, etc.

Regarding the issue of politicians twittering during Obama's speech, lots of journalists are framing it as if that makes them as bad as gossipy schoolkids. Twittering politicians is not a bad thing. The spontaneous, and succinct nature of tweets reveals a side of a person you do not get any other way. You get a certain honesty, or at least a feel for their personality on a day-to-day level (there are exceptions). You get the Republican who recommended people watch a basketball game if they didn't want to "watch Pelosi smirk for the next hour", and you get Claire McCaskill reporting on the new Health and Human Services secretary, saying she'll "be terrific", minutes after it's announced. These are their unfiltered opinions of an event as it happens. No filter, no delay. How is that a bad thing?

Twitter's not just useful politically. As I said, it spreads any information. Patrick Norton tweets one of my flickr photos and I get 7200 views in one day. Kevin Rose (and others) regularly brings down websites by sending thousands of followers to a page all at once. Veronica has an interview in twenty minutes, so she asks for interview question ideas and has plenty of material in no time.

The list goes on. It's ironic that twitter's usefulness can't be properly summed up in 140 characters. At least, I havent seen it. And twitter's not helping itself any, but that's another blog entry.

Sen. Claire McCaskill tweeted it best: "Those naysayers bout twitter don't get it. It's all about communication. Communication is always a good thing especially in my job."


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[info]davmoo
2009-03-01 05:44 pm UTC (link)
Politicians twittering during a speech is supposed to be bad? How is that any different from a group of friendly politicians all sitting in the same room and watching Obama on TV while conversing about his speech? Or a couple of them talking about it on the phone? Get real, people.

I admit I don't twitter a whole lot simply because I rarely have anything more interesting to tweet than "I'm scratching my butt while I figure out what to do next." But I follow a pile of tech industry people who give way more than that.

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[info]phyxius
2009-03-03 07:23 pm UTC (link)
How is that any different
Exactly. Hell, bloggers would write up a whole post while listening to a speech. 140 chars takes what, 30 secs out of an hour's speech?

I rarely have anything more interesting to tweet

psh. lots of your posts are (or could be) 140 chars. ;)

Edited at 2009-03-03 07:30 pm UTC

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