While reading “10 ways library schools should be teaching social media” I found myself focusing on the author’s promotion of Twitter. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: tweeting isn’t for me. Hooker mentions the number one complaint against Twitter a number of times – “the signal-to-noise ratio.” For whatever reason, most people who care to micro-blog are updating us on the minutiae of day-to-day life or just letting it all hang out (figuratively, thankfully) and have us screaming, “TMI!” I’m well aware, however, that there are organizations, prominent bloggers/authors and other parties who do attempt to use Twitter in a more productive way but my question is: why Twitter? Why use this particular forum to spread the news or your gospel when it’s criticized for its (lack of) content? Social media continues to evolve and in some instances carves out niches as well – consider social networking… MySpace was open to everyone and their uncles; enter Facebook, a social networking site that was initially only available to university/college students. Now there are social networking sites for professionals (LinkedIn, Qapacity), Internet wizards (Pingsta – ok, it’s more of a collaborative tool but I’m not splitting hairs), and work colleagues (Yammer) – even atmospheric scientists have their own social network (AtmosPeer). Where is the grown-up version of Twitter? Surely there’s room on the interweb for another micro-blogging platform that prizes quality over quantity.
Go Rockin’ Robin (Go away)
January 20, 2010 · 3 Comments
Categories: Responses
Tagged: microblogging, rant?, social networking, twitter
3 responses so far ↓
Daniel Hooker // Jan 20th 2010 at 11:18 PM
Thanks for reading and responding to my post! I have a couple words of advice for you when thinking more about Twitter. You are looking for a “grown up version of Twitter”–I would argue that you don’t need a grown up service, but rather a grown up network.
I actively curate the people whom I follow on Twitter, and don’t tolerate those who share the minutiae of their day. I don’t mean that no one I follow ever says anything about their day-to-day life, but I find value in the personalities and quirks of the bloggers and generally smart people that I have found to follow. That provides me with a level of personality and charm that I can’t get from an RSS reader.
I think it is unreasonable to expect a micro-blog platform to somehow “prize” quality over quantity, and indeed, I would argue is undesirable. Not only would that limit serendipitous discovery of links, thoughts and wisdom because the size of the network would necessarily be smaller, but it would also have to involve some form of censorship or shame or flame war or other means of internet snobbery/evilness.
I would encourage you to give Twitter another chance, and this time be selective. Take the time to find those productive members of Twitter. Remember that you start out following nobody. There is no noise on Twitter unless you choose to look at it.
amena // Jan 21st 2010 at 12:01 AM
Thanks for stopping by, Daniel. I think you may be right in noting that maybe I’m looking for a grown-up network and not necessarily a grown-up service.
Perhaps I misspoke/wrote when I mentioned prizing quality over quantity. I’ve just been wondering why I haven’t come across a platform for people/organizations with similar goals considering how niche-y things can get online. And granted the size of such a network may be limited at first but it seems as though everyone is eager to jump on the social media bandwagon right now so it probably wouldn’t stay too small for too long.
In general, I’m just wondering why Twitter appears to be the reigning champ when it comes to microblogging and not, say, Tumblr? Does Twitter get the seal of approval because celebrities are on it and there’s been a lot of media coverage about it? Or is it the ease of use? Or the serendipitous finds you mentioned?
My instinct is often to shy away from anything receiving too much hype until I’ve had enough time to get over my misgivings and suss out the good in it; I think I’m getting close to reaching that point with Twitter.
Daniel Hooker // Jan 21st 2010 at 12:59 AM
I think of lot of Twitter’s growth comes from its ease of use, yes. I can’t say for certain why similarly easy things don’t take off in the way that Twitter has, though I suspect it’s a blend of the reasons that you mentioned above. In my opinion, Tumblr and Posterous and similar tools I think take on too much… they are too similar to regular blogs. Twitter does one simple thing really well, and that has allowed it to flourish. (Of course, it isn’t perfect and you should read this about why Twitter eventually must go away: http://www.slate.com/id/2225283/)
Even though Twitter is technically easy to use, though, as you know it is not very easy to establish a initial stream of good information. That does take time (and practice), and you have to be invested in it, but it is absolutely possible. Once you get there, I think you will be surprised at how useful and informative it can be.