I realize that I've barely scratched the surface of Twitter's capabilities (or dysfunctions), but I think it's worth commenting on it because peoples initial reactions and judgements seem really important to continued usage. It's like if someone told you on a first date that they like to light puppies on fire for fun. Would you continue dating that person? Is that a deal breaker?
Coming from Facebook, it's difficult not to compare the two . If I were sitting at a coffeeshop looking for something to do - which I never have the time to do anymore, I could turn to Twitter to get the up to the minute updates about what's happening around town. But content-wise, those updates don't seem to differ from Facebook's updates. I think I learn just as much about what's happening, if not more because more people I know use Facebook. Below is a recent study conducted about content on Twitter. It's about what I expected and what Facebook more or less looks like, though my friends (the ones that I haven't hidden) don't engage in as much pointless babble unless it's somewhat ironic or an interesting addition to the overarching narrative of humanity.
I think the difference in the content is very slight. Reading through my friends tweets, they seem more direct, succinct, and tend to be more okay with being more informational and less clever or snarky or profound. I've also noticed that some people post a lot more than others. I mean a lot. Yet it doesn't quite feel as obsessive if that person posted with the same frequency on Facebook. What the implications of this are, I don't know. As it stands, I already spend too much time on Facebook, and it already seems daunting to me, and quite frankly, fundamentally unsound to spend more time social networking. At least LinkedIn requires little attention. I liken it to having multiple children. The first one or two, you devote a lot of energy to but then for subsequent offspring, there is usually more of a "what will be, will be" attitude.
Again, this post is meant to be about initial reactions (I'm talking about spending maybe 20 minutes on Twitter tops) so before you start getting all up in my grill about how I'm wrong about this or that, remember that I can't be wrong about my first impressions.
After using it for a couple of weeks now, I'm realizing that Twitter is great for people who do a lot, are interested in a wide variety of topics (especially in the creative fields), and for people who love information. If you have a job that requires little besides the work, go home to your girlfriend at night, and watch t.v. on the weekends, then it's probably not for you.
ReplyDelete