Ok, so I was wrong.
This is hard for me to say, but I was wrong. I always had a very negative view of twitter (maybe it’s the name). I haven’t completely embraced it and connected to any prospective industry contacts with it, but I have signed up for twitter updates from some of my favorite news sources, and I’ve looked through some of the tweets the rest of you have put on your tweeter rolls on the wiki. I guess my issue with twitter was always that I didn’t like the constant dumbing down of communication. The trend from Newspapers to Blogging to Micro-blogging put me in a state of fear that soon ideas would be communicated in the most basic sense. What I mean is complex or iconic events being condensed into simple contextless statements instead of informative reports “michael jackson dead.” “Iran oppresses people”. The more I looked through twitter and even used it I realized that I was absolutely right, but that’s not a bad thing. I signed up to BBC world news and CNN breaking news because I looked through their tweets and saw headlines of stories I wanted to read, I realized that it wasn’t much different than looking at newspaper headlines at news stands, but as a bonus I can do it in my underwear and not have frightened people staring at me in disgust. Oh, and I comment on the story and allow people who follow me to see ideas and help spread that story (theoretically speaking, I don’t have many followers yet). I see this as potentially as a strong tool in industry as well, granted I have no connections, I can see how after becoming part of a twitter network getting my ideas out or even just getting my name known would be easier than if twitter were never introduced.
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July 26th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Henry I completely understand your feelings about Twitter, as I was right there with you. Prior to this class I just could not see the value of Twitter in anyway shape or form. However, since signing up I find that I am much more connected not only to family and friends but also to what’s going in the world. Breaking news stories are a lot easy to digest with a “dumbed down” headline and link to get more information if I so choose. I follow such an eclectic mix of people, many of whom I have never met that offer such unique perspectives on things and introduce me to so many different kinds of ideas. I am shocked that I actually have followers, many of whom I have never met, that are actually interested in what I have to say. I can’t begin to imagine why. In addition, I feel as if Twitter has so much to offer in the way of my career and I am only just beginning to tap into this resource. It’s actually pretty exciting. Happy Tweeting!
July 27th, 2009 at 8:35 am
I understand what you mean Henry; I?ve had to kind of ?re-invent? my idea of twitter. When I first got my account a couple of years ago, I used it as a brain dump, I had no followers and no one followed me. It was, for me, a lovely anonymous delight! But as things grew and developed, Twitter became more and more mainstream and so as people I knew started following me, my tweets became more subdued, plain and safe. I could no longer say whatever I wanted, as the person I was saying it about was likely following me, or may be following me soon!
As the twitter became more pervasive, I lost interest and had in fact sworn off it just before this class (where I was required to have regular tweets) so I?ve dragged it out a little longer ? but I doubt I?ll be maintaining my account much after the summer.
So ? do I think it?s useful? Well I think it has become so. I can see the benefits of this kind of instantaneous news updates ? and in fact there?s now even a company in Africa that is developing software that is capable of aggregating twitter updates and graphing them according to the source?s reliability, to try to ascertain the validity of the news being spread.
(Their talk is on the TED website ? I?ll post the link if I can find it again)
The part I don?t like about the development of Twitter though, is the duplicate tweets I get on facebook and Twitter. It?s lame enough hearing that someone?s had toast for breakfast ? but receiving a duplicate of that update through multiple social networking sites is more than annoying ? it makes me want to un-friend someone ?
July 27th, 2009 at 10:45 am
So far I have not found much use for me with Twitter.
I can see how it is useful, but I guess it is low on my time priority list.
I do like having the Seesmic Desktop, though, because I can post a Tweet and a Facebook comment at the same time!
I will sign up for some news orgs to see if it makes it more applicable to my world, but so far, I am not finding it very helpful.
July 28th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
I agree with Henry that it is great to be able to read through headlines from several sources and then dive in to read the news. It allows one to be more selective after looking at the larger, simpler choices. At the same time I also see Helen’s point of view. While I like being able to see all these updates, I’m kind of annoyed with friends who I follow that are using it as a chance to share innane texts publicly. I don’t need to be part of their conversation but I do feel bad defriending them. I guess the answer is to find the more meaningful tweeters and follow them. It’s difficult to be selective but I think I need to go through and really revamp my Following list.
July 29th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
I think it’s really about finding, as you said Kelly, meaningful tweeters – those who are adding value to your tweet stream. It’s totally ok to un-follow someone if they’re not adding value to your tweet stream. I’ve un-followed (and sometimes re-followed, depending on what’s being said) people and I’m sure that people have done the same with me.
Atiya and Henry – great to hear that you’ve been leveraging the network. I agree -the eclectic mix of perspectives, ideas and news really makes it interesting.
Olysha – you may want to consider adding people who are talking about education, since you’re in that field. Have you tried going to search.twitter.com to search for those tweeting about “education”? Following people like @AngelaMaiers who tweets about education and media literacy, or @rikomatic who came to talk to our class in Second Life about virtual worlds and education – can be helpful.
It’s interesting to go through the class’s Twitter roll to see whom people have followed. I always make some cool discoveries that way.
Helen – would be interesting to hear about that company developing software capable of aggregating twitter updates and graphing them according to the source’s reliability. I did a few searches but didn’t come up with it so if you stumble upon that link, do pass it on.