More Twitter Skepticism
From techie and genuine Twitter-fan Tom Lee.
It’s been horrifying to watch Twitter evolve into a medium used for important (if not serious) communication. First and foremost, I am appalled by our legislators’ embrace of a time-suck communication medium that is necessarily superficial, and (more perniciously) one that is so convincingly fake-democratic while actually just facilitating communication with rich, Apple-computer-owning white people like myself.Its adoption by the mainstream media has been similarly off-putting. As a cheap and fun SMS interface for media outlets I have no beef with it; as a means of personal marketing for journalists, the pretense and lack of honesty is dismaying (Ezra’s [Klein’s] diagnosis of their motivations as being grounded in a desire to avoid being left behind by the next blog-like internet trend is dead-on, I think — we should thank god we were spared from a hypothetical David Gregory Tumblr). I’d say the median journotweet is something like “getting ready to sit down for an i/v w
spalin. the lady is a tough cookie!" when in fact it should be closer to "complaining abt blogs in line to pick up kidssidwell frnds. no poor people around!”
I’m really baffled by the advent of Congress and mainstream news journo-Tweeting. What’s the utility? As Tom points out, the posts are almost universally vapid and uninforming. They rarely even display much in the way of wit or humor. In theory, or in a Jay-Rosen-designed utopia, perhaps they serve as some sort of real-time feedback and communications system that encourages concise expression. But we exist neither in theory nor in a Jay-Rosen-design utopia, and I don’t think we’re likely to get there soon (thank goodness, really). So instead we get this. And this. And this. And this. And this. At least Jim DeMint is using his feed as a way to put out information relevant to his supporters. None of those feeds even rise to the level of mildly clever self-promotion, which can at least be entertaining. I’ll reiterate: I think Twitter is pretty neat. I’ve got Tweetdeck open right now; when I’m not working, I almost always do. I get annotated, curated links from a few smart folks who cover issues I’m interested in and (mostly) lots of interesting and dry and funny insights and from friends. But I have no idea what anyone would actually get from any of the journo/Congress feeds I linked above.
How does Twitter fundamentally differ from receiving a huge number of really short emails?
— Steve Sailer · Apr 9, 06:40 AM · #
Lots of people can see them — the conversations are public or semi-public, and you can exercise a good bit of control over which conversations and parts of conversations you see. Also, it autoupdates in your feed, so there’s no need to open, close, etc. — if you use an external app like Tweetdeck, the conversations just update themselves. It’s basically a very smart blend of email, chat rooms, text-messaging, and blogging.
— Peter Suderman · Apr 9, 06:44 AM · #
I like Tickle a little better. Nothing’s funnier than random proper nouns.
— JA · Apr 9, 01:29 PM · #
I’m not a utopian, don’t design utopias, and have not made any pronouncements about Twitter as the future of anything… So your comments are stupid. They’re hypespeak. Though I guess you think yourself as countering hype, you’re adding to it. Cheers.
— Jay Rosen · Apr 9, 02:12 PM · #
So, basically, Twitter is a slightly more efficient way to receive countless emails per day.
Swell.
— Steve Sailer · Apr 9, 03:06 PM · #
Jay — I didn’t mean to suggest that you are Utopian. But if you got to design a Utopia, or something like it, we’d have lots of really conversational and useful journo-Tweeting. I’m not trying to counter hype or add to it. I’m trying to figure out what the utility is of prominent journos and pols feeling obligated to send out waves of uninforming and unhelpful Tweets. And I’m pushing back against the chatter that I hear from lots of people — not you — who seem impressed and/or interested by the journo/Congress Tweet phenomenon.
— Peter Suderman · Apr 9, 03:56 PM · #
Okay, fine. I just don’t know when I became a utopian, or utopia designer. It sounds like hype speak to me. I do not advise people to join Twitter because it’s great, and I do not go around assuming that if some famous person is on Twitter that awesome two-way democratic wonderfulness will be the result.
— Jay Rosen · Apr 9, 05:31 PM · #
“I’m really baffled by the advent of Congress and mainstream news journo-Tweeting. What’s the utility? As Tom points out, the posts are almost universally vapid and uninforming. They rarely even display much in the way of wit or humor.”
Isn’t the vast majority of the media’s (and Congress’) output “vapid and uninforming,” and devoid of “wit or humor”? There’s a lot of great journalism out there, but it’s a tiny amount compared to the volume of garbage expelled by TV, papers, magazines, blogs, etc. That was always true but it’s especially true now, when the day’s news is reported and re-reported, and commented upon, at which point that commentary commented upon, etc., in a process that could be of interest only to the tiny number of politicians, journalists and wonks who are in some way personally involved in or committed to the issues/news in question.
So talking about Twitter’s “utility” in objective terms seems like the wrong perspective. Its “utility” is simply that it gives people who are obsessed with politics, and who are also chained to the internet as part of their jobs and lifestyles, with a cheap, quick and easy way to get their fix.
Asking about the “utility” of Twitter is like surveying the drug culture in the 1980s and asking about the “utility” of crack. Twitter seems to serve no purpose beyond satisfying its users’ compulsions in a way that requires little or no effort.
The same probably applies to non-political uses of Twitter, except that the self-obsession and self-promotion isn’t disguised by the pretense that it’s all for a good cause.
— Charlie · Apr 9, 06:28 PM · #
I wouldn’t try to make sense of it, Peter, if that means finding a good or even halfway decent reason for what the congressmen are doing. I think it’s just like a bunch of children seeing other people doing something and saying “me too!” They’re on twitter because someone told them that it was what cool people did, and they thought that it would make them cool.
— Justin · Apr 10, 10:51 PM · #