What’s the big deal?

Posted by Stevieb | Filed under Tech

Twitter; what’s the big deal? 140 characters to let people know what you are up too. I get the concept, but I just don’t get the hype. I mean, who really cares what you are doing every second of every day? Twitter is so crazy easy to update, you can do it from your PC/mobile, iPhone the list goes on. Blogging I can understand, “Micro Blogging” I just don’t see the value. It’s just another social competition to get more followers than the other person using it, and of course the second it became popular, the marketing “Gurus” were on it faster than a fat kid chasing cake, claiming to show you proven ways to increase turnover, make stacks of cash, increase your followers, make your business contacts grow and other associated tripe, it’s fairly shameless.

I mean lets put it in real life terms. A blog, or a forum is in my opinion a fairly effective means to get your message across to the masses if used correctly, almost now more popular than newspapers, magazines and dare I even say TV? Twitter is the equivalent of walking up to a friend, having a 7 second burst of “text speak” shouting and waiting feverishly for a response. 5 minutes later your mates will reciprocate in the same fashion.

I can understand someone “Tweeting” because it fills that 25 second void while you stand in a queue for the toilet in the pub/ add another moment of boredom here.

But what I can’t understand is someone subscribing and avidly watching what someone “Tweets”. I just don’t get it, I mean, see below 100% genuine “tweets”:

(Names removed)

Omgsh I am SO hooked on making stamps now it’s not even funny

Ok example one, I mean come on, seriously? I mean honestly, is there someone in front of a PC going “OH YEAH! SHE’S ADDICTED TO STAMP MAKING I KNEW IT!!!”. For the sake of mankind, I hope not.

Oh look! I’m up to 4 followers now. Two I know, two I don’t. Hope the one’s I don’t know aren’t as creepy as the ones I do. LOL

Perfect example, 2 friends listening to 140 character tirades of rubbish,and another two random creepy buggers trying to boost their “following” count.

a big shout out 2 tha boiz .. =) .. love yall lyk mad .. really wana c yall suun .. hopefully i will … scribbe back mwah x x

Would you shout this in the middle of the street in front of your friends? I hope the hell not….

just waiting in the takeaway, it’s pretty busy…

Why does anyone give a monkeys that you’re waiting for a take away? Or is it perhaps such a milestone of your existence that you just absolutely had to tell everyone? I’m willing to bet, this is the kind of person that tweets “Im gunna go fr a dump k? brb lol!!11″

Now I can hear you all cry, “But Stevieb don’t knock it until you have tired it!”

I tried it, I “Tweeted” like my life depended on it. Then I realised, it’s just another trendy thing to do, and quite frankly a waste of my time.

Has mankind honestly come to this? Conversations in 140 characters or less? Soon we’ll all be sitting in the pub “tweeting” each other our drink orders, the spoken word will all become obsolete and we’ll become a word of trend following sheep.

“@all-twitter-users Enough from me, does Twitter have a future as a major player in the global social networking scene, or will it simply fade away once people”…………….

Damn 140 character limit……..

Read more | Comments (3) | April 10th, 2009