I've been milling about for a month or more now in this virtual hotel called Twitter. There are a lot of parties going on. People come in and out of your room. You go in and out of some rooms. You can't help but notice that some tweeters are performing for their audience, being funny, interesting or profound. Others are standing in the shadows observing quietly. There are celebrities who follow no one. Just a broadcast medium for them. Just self-referencing themselves and their work while other celebrities trying their best to connect to their fans. Fans love getting the feeling of a personal connection, even if it is tweeting a message that will get no reply. And if there is a reply, the pronoun "I" or "me" is almost always attached. We commoners also start behaving like celebrities as we gather followers. We want more and more followers to quench our narcissitic desire. Aaah, to be followed must mean "you love me, you really really love me" as Sally Field declared when she won an Oscar. Ultimately we end up talking about ourselves in every other tweet.
Most of the people on Twitter seem to be from the social media and information technology business. Talking to each other or posting about their industry. There is no opportunity to create a community of like-minded tweeters because there are no directories. With blindfolds on we are shouting out in a crowd like street hawkers hoping to be heard. To make a some sort of transaction or connection. Accomplish something. But what?
Twitter. The grand experiment. We? - the frenzied mice spinning on our wheels and navigating the maze for some yet to be determined reward.
What has this global bulletin board accomplished? How is Twitter effective? Fine, okay Dell sold a lot of computers via twitter. But look who they sold it to? The industry people. Where is twitter effective? No, please, I don't want to know the hypothetical list of possibilities of what Twitter CAN do I want to know what it HAS done. Where is the measured impact? Give me results. I understand numbers.
I don't feel happy about Twitter yet. Jumped into this marriage but since I've given it a lot of time and energy, I'll stick it out. Few more months, then I'll re-evaluate. These days marriages are like that.
Jess,
ReplyDeleteYou think right, lots of talk, not much real stuff that people have done. Some yes though... and for marketing types like us, it's early days yet.
As for groups, try reading through these:
http://twittgroups.com/index.php
http://mashable.com/2008/05/24/14-more-twitter-tools/
I like people who think, not blindly follow hype.
Keep writing.
Cheers
Rajesh
very interesting........just realized I am performer.. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks!
A couple of interest-based Twitter directories:
ReplyDeletehttp://wefollow.com/
http://www.twibes.com/
I stand corrected. There ARE directories. Looked through them and found a couple of people to follow.
ReplyDeleteThank-you for pointing out the directories Rajesh and Kyle.
I think twitter is a waste (just my opinion), however it did come in handy for Iranians during the recent protests. That was one of the very few ways people in Iran could tell the world as to what was happening in their country.
ReplyDeleteWith that said...I still wouldn't tweet.
Such a wee skeptic you are my dear J. Glad you aren't my boss, otherwise I'd never get a syllabus approved. I think process, the journey, is more important than the product, the intended destination. What a sad lot we'd be if we gave up on something because it didn't yield measureable results. Furthermore, one must always be cautious about measurement because we are rarely told anything about the scale used, whether it's reliable, or not. Nor are we told how things are measured and whether the methods are valid, and some results just can't be expressed in numbers, yet. And at times, the process awakens us to previously unforseen potentials and an array of possible products. Having an idea of what we want to do and where we want to go is important, of course. We need some direction, but we need to be open to serendipity too.
ReplyDeleteAs for what Twitter HAS done, the situation in Iran is a good example, as simer says. In my case, twitter connects me with teachers around the world and I benefit from their ideas and resources. Of course other web platforms exist that provide me with this, and I must say that I'm still in the process of sorting everything out. I may in the end drop twitter in favour of something that integrates everything I'm looking for. I'm still in the PROCESS.
Anyway, in the meantime I enjoy your tweets.
Cheers!