Entertainment For Lively Minds
I steadfastly refuse to Twitter
Posted by Five-Centres on 10 February 2009 - 4:39pm.
All it seems to be is a running commentary, like constantly updating your Facebook status. Who's interested? Is everyone truly hanging off your every word? I'm wondering what the bloody point is.
In the pub recently, a friend was glued to his laptop Twittering about what was being said and what was going on to the outside world. Not only did it kill the conversation, but it was impossible for us to speak to him or him to speak to us at any great length. If you want to know what's going on with your mates around the pub table, then why not just come in the first place? All in all it was a disastrous experiment never to be repeated, hopefully.
There's so much technology around I'm finding it hard to keep up.
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You don't have to use it...
I've never used My Space, Facebook or Twitter and I very much doubt I ever will, but if people like them then that's OK with me.
I know I don't have to use it
and I never said others shouldn't. What I am saying is I don't see the point of it.
As Someone Who Actively Uses Myspace To Find New Music...
...I find it strange that in general the Massive is proud not to have used Myspace. I find it great for being alerted to tour dates and new songs added by those artists I subscribe to. Currently listening to a live album from Jackie Leven that was made available from his page. Plus it has lead me to go to more gigs by unsigned bands than ever before.
Agreed...
..I would never have got to hear Findo Gask without Myspace. And Mark Radcliffe who initially championed them.
What I mean is, Myspace is great for discovering new stuff. What's not to like.
MySpace is what it is
Each MySpace page is the Internet equivalent of a xeroxed flyer. Surely nobody would have complained that they didn't like the way the flyer was formatted and so wouldn't go to the gig or buy the record. Similarly, most people wouldn't have stood outside a gig handing out flyers to tell people where they went on holiday last year.
I really can't understand what the problem is either. If someone has something to tell us then they can use MySpace. If they have nothing to say then shut up, if they're not sure if they have anything to say then the liklyhood is that they should probably shut up as well as they are the ones that give MySpace a bad name.
Getting a bad name...
MySpace does't help itself, though. It's clunky, ugly, riddled with spam, and the navigation is often nonsensical. Sure it provides a valuable service for bands, and for fans, but it could really do with being redesigned from the ground up. This is 2009, and the site still feels like did when it was put together in 2003.
That seems to naturally happen with so many websites....
...they add more features and gadgets to the site and, over time, they lose track of why people liked/used it in the first place.
I agree
The arrogance of some people using it is unbelievable - as if I'm interested in their every move and pronouncement.
What irks me is people who moan about erosion of civil liberties and ID cards etc. and then will happily give all their personal info to a site like facebook.
Are you sure
That those two groups overlap?
Sadly yes
I had a heated debate about it with some of my friends who do both of those things.
Also, working in advertising you can see how all the info can be collected and used
it's all getting a bit Terminator 2 for my liking
Apples and Oranges
If you want to give your personal information out, it may well be inadvisable, but it's your right to do so.
It's quite another if someone else is telling you they're going to do it and you have no say in the matter.
Facebook as Hotel California etc
It's the information sharing aspect of it that rather puts me off:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/dec/20/facebook.privacy
Has anything changed in this respect since Andrew Brown wrote the (what seems to me rather sane) piece above? I know there is now a delete option, I am more worried about the way the advert robots work, as he reported.
And is there a quick how-to somewhere on what the most minimal toe-in-the-water Facebook presence would be ?
The outcry over that particular setting
caused them to remove it.
The following gives you advice on how to stay safe on Facebook. Little of it is rocket science, it's just that they tend to hide some of the settings away a little.
http://www.sophos.com/security/best-practice/facebook.html
I refuse to eat pickles!
Just thought I'd share.
It strikes me that your problem is a friend with no social skills rather than Twitter.
Thank you but...
Yes but that information is no good to us unless we know where you are and what else you're doing when you're not eating pickles!
Man in pub on Twitter
needs to have a stiff word with himself around his behaviour.
I try these things out and most of it doesn't stick. Facebook is irritating in th e extreme. Twitter, though, seems quite interesting at the moment. But then I have avoided following large numbers of people and have only added two celebs (outside of Word celebs like Fraser) in Richard Herring and Phill Jupitus. Richard Herring especially is interesting and I get a little insight into the world of comedy which I find interesting.
Note to self
*must keep masturbation references to a minimum*
Yes,
I feel such a jerk when I do that.
The time
I'm on Facebook and find it moderately diverting. And I admire this blog a lot and post tedious, coat-tail hanging entries often enough, but I just don't have the time to get into all of this stuff.
How do you all manage it?
I've only got 4 friends on Facebook
and I've had a new mobile for a month now, and only had 2 calls (both from my wife). I've made 3 though (garage, shop and answer phone when my wife phoned and I didn't hear it ring). All this new stuff really makes me feel even more of a boring old fart than I really am (or perhaps more so than I thought?)
I really think Twitter would be a complete waste of time for me, as no-one would ever look at it.
Oh well (as Peter Green so eloquently put it)
He sounds
a bit of a tit-ter
(c)Beany...in case someone decides to launch a social network site for arses in pubs.
Fry and Ross are enthusiasts
That's all the information I need.
that's nothing
I still by CDs often and from a shop and pay full freight..sometimes
and i dont
check my posts very well before posting
erratum apologies
I'm thinking
of starting a new one called Twatter, I think the name may be more apt!
I can't decide
Every now and then, I think of something I'd put on Twitter and ponder maybe signing up and contributing.
Then I remember I don't actually know anybody who uses it and I'd be updating precisely... no-one. In Twitter, no-one can hear you tweet...
Seems like fun at the moment
I'm just getting into the Twitter thing - at the moment it's looking like an excellent resource for music news, recommendations and the latest from Solange Knowles about getting a "shot" in her "ass".
As for stuff I post myself, perhaps I'm just a massive narcissist.
Apropos nowt in particular, I must say my hair's looking great today.
Bloody typical!
I've been hearing a lot about Twitter, and have absolutely no interest in it. From what I hear, it just seems another indicator of the human desire for quantity over quality. The world is suffering from an excessive need for superficiality, but then maybe I'm a boring twat. I agree with five corners, at the top of the blog. Power to those who want to twitter, but don't think it's anything but inane.
A thought
I like Twitter. And, as Aaron Sorkin's script for David Fincher's The Social Network rather neatly suggests, Twitter and Facebook are particularly useful for people who find real life social networking rather difficult.
I kind of wish more people I knew were on Twitter. But, like the music of Bob Dylan, I have no interest in trying to give them a justifying bite-size summary of why they should try it out. They either will or they won't; and they'll either get it or they won't.
This post has come back to haunt me
Now I'm Twittering with the best of them.
Ha!
Sorry to resurrect it. I was looking for something else and just stumbled upon it!
That's a shame
was planning a post with the header "Twitter ye not ?"
Oddly enough, I closed my Facebook account last night
Although I've been using it for a couple of years I realised I was becoming uncomfortable the way it integrates my personal information with that of my 'friends'.
I'm sure there are settings that can be tweaked to make it more private but, other than Facebook Places from the iPad I just used it to post trivia anyway.
I don't miss it... yet :-)
Facebook
I've been thinking of closing mine too, but I've tried before and rarely last more than a week. It's addictive, which is bizarre, as it is very rare that any of my FB friends says anything interesting or funny.
It's my understanding that if I hold out for 14 days
then the account is completely and utterly deleted.
If I log back in before the 14 days is up then everything's reactivated as if I hadn't pressed [Close].
Facebook vs Twitter
That
is priceless. *Homer Simpson voice* It's funny because it's true...
Social Networking
I do think it is damaging human interaction. We're happy to spill our guts online but then hide behind the sofa when a kid in a witch's hat rings the doorbell.
Au contraire
If it wasn't for this miraculous place the GLW and I wouldn't have a social life.It was getting on line and joining up with The Massive that has led us too get out and meet up with the North-West chapter.Easily the best thing we have done in a decade.
Being a carer is a very isolating experience,old friends stop calling because one is very rarely able to take part in social life and slowly you drift apart.Until spring of this year my wife and I had not had a night out for Ten years,now we are looking forward avidly to the next mingle on the 3rd December,where we will meet up again with some of the finest people it has been our privilege to meet in a very,very long time.
As for Twitter you'll find me on there most days along with a growing number of The Massive.