Monday, October 31, 2011

the twitter shitter

I've resisted a twitter account for years but with my new blog-venture I decided to create one. There's no denying twitter's usefulness for promoting and networking when you're blogging like (hopefully a whole lot of people) are reading.

For the first couple of weeks I kept my account really quiet, following only a blog buddy who was about to give birth, a couple of South Africans I'm interested in and my SIL. Then I went public with the blog and happily sought out all those people I'd been keen to follow on twitter for years, plus hosts of random parent bloggers, mothers and fathers - people I thought it would be useful to network with for the blog.

It's been a couple of months now and ... I can't say that I'm loving it.

I keep reading odes to twitter, articles about it's awesomeness, first hand accounts of how people's lives have changed, improved, benefited from tweeting.
But I still don't get it.

I know the basic tenet is that if you're not enjoying twitter then you're following the wrong people, and I definitely was doing that for a while there. I fell into that morbid fascination, like the early days of facebook, where I couldn't help myself reading every inane tweet, marveling at the utter crap people feel its relevant to share.
Just take a dump in cyberspace why don't you? No really here, I'll hold the loo roll.

And it left me with that same shitty feeling as wasting hours facebook stalking random wedding photos. Brain cluttered, slightly nauseated, majorly disappointed in my fellow humankind but mainly in myself for having even gone there.

I don't get the sharing random brain farts with 5000 mostly-strangers. I don't get the marvel at squeezing your thoughts and words into 140 characters (how is this a great talent unless you're in advertising or write for People magazine?). I don't get the people clearly tweeting throughout a social occasion or worse, outing with their kids.

I do get the advantages of business networking, sharing ideas and sounding out others on various topics. I do get the thrill of breaking news disseminating so quickly and effectively.
I have to admit to loving the hash-tag-of-descriptiveness #greatestthingsinceslicedbread.

But other than that? I'm tweetering on the brink of meh.

6 comments:

Kit Lang said...

although I have a twitter account, I've never actually used it. I think there's enough of me out there via my blog and Facebook that people have reached their saturation point/interest in "Kit Lang".

Although I've never actually tweeted, I do still on occasion get a notice that someone is "following" me on twitter. It's lovely of them, but I don't get it.

:)

Sultan said...

I think the difference between twitter and blogs is similar to the difference between poetry and novels.

DB Stewart said...

Laoch always knows what to say.
I enjoy twitter because it's restricted to short comments which makes it easier to pan for gold.

Janine T said...

I love Twitter, absolutely addicted! My toddler doesn't sleep, so in those lonely hours I feel less lonely as I can open Twitter on my phone and read what is happening all over the world. I love the tech and foodie posts and its how I stay in touch with what funders and NGOs are doing. I also adore the fact that I can use Twitter to diss bad service/food or promote it. Maybe one day, a link to an Onion article or how India is giving thousands of kids computer tablets may pull you out of the dark loneliness of 3am. I hope so! Keep at it!

ToBlog today said...

The trick to twitter is to find others that are like minded to follow. For example, I am just getting into raw food, so I add people who are into that. I also enjoy photography, and add followers who also enjoy it. Just watch for bots!
I've made amazing friends on twitter, and the news feeds are great way to get a heads up on what's new.

Be careful you might love it so much, you'd put it on your phone. Tweet! Tweet!

Molly said...

Yup, I knew it. It's all about who you follow, and finding people with similar interests.
Now to find some interests ...