I've never seen Twitter as anything more than a forum where people deem it appropriate to post updates on all the mundane details of their lives: "I am sitting in my car." "I am using the toilet." "I am walking down the stairs." "I tripped and fell down the stairs." Do I really care about every mundane thing that you do? (Well, maybe yes for the person who just fell down the stairs, but if she can muster up the energy to tweet, what's keeping her from dialing 911?) Why do people bother posting Tweets like that? I mean, if somebody is honestly excited to hear about ALL the mundane details of your life, shouldn't that concern and/or disturb you in any way, shape, or form? I have my own life with its own mundane details, thank you very much.
Anyway, my experiences with posting on Twitter are far from professional. Basically, my younger sister and I both have accounts, but we only log into Twitter to make our Twitter aliases argue with one another (hence why we sometimes refer to one another as "he" in the screen cap below.)
I know, maturity-wise I am far beyond my years. I'll just leave you in awe for a few minutes....
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You should be in awe right now.
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You should still be in awe.
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Okay, you can stop now.
I suppose we're learning how to use this website in a more - erm - professional manner. It would be nice to see how this site is supposed to be used because as of right now, I just don't find it useful for anything except having hilarious e-arguments with my sister. Which I guess makes it useful enough, but a little birdie (AHHH, BAD PUN! HIT IT WITH A FRYING PAN!!) tells me that's not what the site is intended for.
Anyway, if you're looking for something fun to comment about, let me pose this question to you: if you could personify a bad pun, what would it look like? I'll leave you with your thoughts.
I'm coming up blank about personifying a bad pun, but ... your back-and-forth with your sister shows us that there is no one "right" way to use Twitter. You might use it for that; Meg Cabot and Neil Gaiman used it to collect lines for an audio book they coordinated the authorship of; the Royal Shakespeare Company actors used it to create a modern Romeo & Juliet; Iranian protesters used it to coordinate activities. That's part of what makes it a social phenomenon, methinks.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you, when I first learned about twitter it was explained to me as "facebook status updates minus the facebook part." I don't know about you, but random, pedestrian status updates drive me crazy, I don't really feel the need to join a site that is comprised of my least favorite part of facebook.
ReplyDeleteJulia
I think you have an awesome relationship with your sister, and that you are utilizing the technology properly. What could be better than snarkiness?
ReplyDeleteI agree w/KF that Neil Gaiman used Twitter in a fabulous way, but what would we expect from him? (Not sure who Meg Cabot is.) I have given a number of copies of Fragile Things to friends as gifts, but me & my peeps are rather luddite & like the paper, even hardcover. I highly recommend his latest children's book, too.
Back to Twitter. My view is also "facebook with only the status updates", but in the era of smartphones, de rigueur gigantic cell bills, it may be one of the easiest ways to keep in touch. Provided you have full coverage cell service...
I'm about to eat dinner. I had a tick crawling up my leg earlier this evening when I went out to the garden to pick some peas. Mundane details, what mundane details?
ReplyDeleteBut, I like the incessant updating of details in the lives of people I don't know!! Srsly, though, twitter can have its good points and bad--I just don't think I will ever use it outside of this class. It doesn't seem worth it to me.
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