Entertainment For Lively Minds
Twitter ye not
Posted by bargepole on 19 July 2011 - 7:10pm.
Can someone please explain the point or purpose of following celebrities on Twitter.
Keeping abreast of their activities maybe, but the minute details of their day to day life - why?
Is it some strange way of pretending we are friends of theirs, almost cyber - stalking, or is there more to it?
Bargepole notes for example that the ubiquitous Cheryl Cole has almost 112,000 followers ! How many times has she tweeted - well, er none actually. So what are they all waiting and hoping to learn?
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That She Might Like To Shag Them?
I don't know, I'm just guessing here.
I wouldn't mind, mind. As long as she didn't speak.
Or sing
[no, not really, it's just a joke. Move along now...]
actually ...
I would insist on her speaking. I think her accent is very sexy.
actually, come to that...
could someone explain to me the point of Twitter?
I suppose...
...it depends who you follow. Perhaps some "celebs" do tweet about their daily stuff, but I follow a number of people who fall into that category (and many who don't) who's tweets are nothing but intelligent, funny (or both) comments, observations, links etc.
I often get that sort of comment from people when they find out I use Twitter and almost universally they haven't actually been anywhere near it.
As a teacher
I spend my day listening to the wit, wisdom, and whinges of thirty people at once. The last thing I need is to do that in my downtime. (I have used Twitter.)
Well, Simon
Grayson (manager of Leeds United) has barred his players from using Twitter who must surely leave the Twittersphere totally bereft.
Uncle Wheaty has never seen the point of Twitter
Appreciate
it's usefulness for keeping up with friends, but total strangers - no. or perhaps we no longer think of slebs as strangers.
Bye bye
Word Blog
See ya Stan.
If you're going past the shop, 20 B&H, four pack of John Smiths and a copy of Readers Wives if you wouldn't mind. And we're running short on milk.
???
Bye bye
Word Blog ???
I think he's gone to
Twitter.
I don't follow any slebs,
just people I know and fellow Word massive members. Far more interested to know what you lot are up to than famous people. I also follow a few bands I like just to keep abreast of what they're up to, and also some of the local gig promoters which is great because you get advance warning of gigs and stuff. It's great for finding out what time bands are on, who the support act is etc. Oh and I follow Danny Baker, but then he's a member of the massive isn't he!
Why does there have to be a reason for everything?
Are celebrities, by definition, uninteresting? No, of course not. Everyone is different, and many celebs are interesting and many will have something interesting to say. (That's probably too many 'interestings' but you know what I mean.)
In the end, Twitter may be pointless - but that doesn't mean it's worthless.
Following people on Twitter.
Is something one does because you have an interest in what they say and what opinions they hold on a particular subject. I am interested in what, for example, Ganglesprocket has to say about things. So I follow him. We interact. I have an interest in what certain journalists and broadcasters have to say. We also interact. The conversations tend to be a bit more one-way but often there's a response.
I have no interest in what most of the vapid media-whores have to say. So I don't follow them.
I find Twitter amusing and, in this time of fast-moving news, frequently highly illuminating.
Put much better...
...than I put it, but pretty much bang on
Twitter
It's a broadcast medium. What is broadcast over it is entirely up to you. If you chose to follow witless bores you will get boring crap. If you follow interesting people there's lots of interesting stuff out there. Not liking twitter is like not liking telephone wires or TV aerials. What you talk about on the phone or watch on the telly is your business. Twitter just provides the transport.
Exactly
I wouldn't have a TV if all I could watch was Ms Cole.
"If you chose to follow witless bores..."
I like Twitter but I don't have a phone with any access so I can only catch up when I get home or grab a quick sneak on the computer every now and then. Sort of defeats the object I guess as I must be missing loads of stuff throughout the day.
Anyway, my question is - how can I stop receiving tweets from people that I haven't actually decided to follow? The real down-side to Twitter for me is that once I have followed a person or site I have to read all the other comments from total strangers.
Is there any way that I can only get posts from the people/sites I want?
Yes, but
you need a licence to broadcast on TV and radio, and when I use my phone I don't have people on the line cutting in saying things like, 'LOL! OMG! u r so gay!!' every minute or so.
Twitter is an unfettered medium, I prefer mine to be, um, feterred.
My irritation with Twitter is probably part of my wider sense of ill ease about the online world in general. My bad, I'm sure.
But
It absolutely is fettered. It's you who choses who to follow. Why are you following them if all they do is say "you're so gay, LOL etc". Don't follow them.
My point above was that it is not fettered.
It's not the people I follow that is the problem but the fact that I have to see other people's comments that follow them too.
I mean I didn't chose to follow or read the comments of Joe Bloggs who also happens to follow Reading FC for example.
I'd just like a streamlined version that purely shows me the tweets from the people/sites that I did actually choose to follow.
Twitter
You shouldn't see too many tweets from people you don't follow, unless someone you follow is re-tweeting them. Some people do re-tweet everything (a couple of Spurs' follows did) so I just unfollowed them too.
Some people occasionally 'reply to all' including you, but that doesn't happen that often.
You will however see conversations between two people you follow.
Switch off retweets
You can switch off retweets, though I haven't tried it. Most of the time the retweets I see are quite interesting.
http://blogs.bluegumtree.co.uk/vista/2010/03/06/127
Jo and Twang...
thanks for the comments.
retweet
just tried it. it works. ta for prompting me to find out. Jemima Kiss unretweeted. Caitlin Moran unfollowed. She's not even interesting half the time.
OK
Yes - like Retro said, it's not necessarily the people you choose to follow, but the background interference from other users. As you helpfully point out you can block / avoid all that - I hadn't really appreciated that you could. To be honest I haven't got the energy for it, I don't think I have much of interest to add to the Twittersphere, so I choose to avoid it. It's just not for me.
Twitter
Tried it. Not for me. It's just a bit too hectic. Being 'in touch' all day just makes me frazzled and I'd rather not go to bed with my mind racing.
It's the retweets that get me down
Caitlin Moran
Grace Dent
Both now blocked by me.
Caitlin Moran does Retweet a load of old shite, doesn't she?
(Somewhere inside the M25, a column of smoke is seen as Bob self-combusts..)
I'm afraid I find her totally insufferable
And don't even start me on Grace Dent.
This is why I follow celebrities
Where else could I get pictures of The Wedding Present in a Little Chef in Droitwich?
(Give my love to the Olympic breakfast)
Following on Twitter is...
...a little like the first few weeks at university.
You pal up with everyone, join all the clubs and societies and get involved in everything, all the time.
And after a term or two you spend most of your time with friends, leave a few of the clubs and smile at acquaintances as you pass in the corridor but never quite get around to getting rid of their mobile number.
On Twitter it's the same, to begin with you follow EVERYONE - slebs, all the people your friends follow, recommendations, people who follow you, bots - the lot. And if/when you find they aren't interesting you stop following.
And eventually you end up with a group of people you know in real life, people you 'know' from a forum or message board, some slebs you find interesting and some other randoms that you forget are there and that you never quite around to deleting.
Not everyone is as brilliant on Twitter as they are in real life (no-one's 'on' the whole time) but there are some notable exceptions - personally I rather like Danny Baker's surreal tweets, George Michael is proving deliciously catty and interesting about the hacking, Brett Anderson is divinely bitchy but has been quiet lately. There are others I follow because I like what they do and think they might be interesting but if they then just pimps their films or whatever I get rid.