The buzz around Twitter is, frankly, reaching a pitched and utterly annoying frenzy. Some of the latest stuff I’ve read, though, has inspired me to add my voice to the throngs. Yes, that would be you people.
Now let me start by saying I don’t use Twitter. I don’t even have an account. And this leads me to my first beef about Twitter: the barrier to entry. “Come on!” you say, “All you need is an email address and a password.” Yes, This is true. But in a world where a user such as myself already has about 80 trillion user accounts, and about 20 trillion of those are in now-defunct, out-of-style, unused social networks, one starts to think a bit more carefully about signing up for anything at all anymore. I mean, Jesus, I still get email from Friendster. Fucking Friendster! And don’t even get me started on the whole online dating thing. Suffice to say, I’ve been doing this for a while now, and I’ve gotten gun-shy.
But the other, bigger, more hidden barrier to entry — the one no one talks about much when they talk about Twitter — is the fact that to Twitter “properly” takes a certain kind of work. It’s not like starting a blog; you can’t just start Tweeting in a vacuum and hope to get anywhere. No, Twitter requires effort and strategy. Effort in the following of other Twitter users and, eventually, strategy in being followed by other Twitterers. It’s not that I mind work — I certainly do my fair share of it — but the goal of Twitter work seems to be following and/or being followed. And I’ve never been much of a pack animal.
A friend of mine, who has also been reading about, but so far refrained from joining, Twitter, recently remarked (in a Facebook status update, no less):
“I’ve been reading about this for the past couple days and it seems to me what Twitter does is take educated and mobile people who would form a kind of elite regardless of the technology of the day, and offers them another way to seperate [sic] themselves from the masses while at the same time allowing them to assert that they are in fact very well-connected.”
This describes a feeling I’ve had for some time about Twitter, but have been unable to put into words. Twitter has an air of exclusivity that I find off-putting. Defensive article titles like, “Twitter Quitters Just Don’t Get It” don’t do much to ameliorate that feeling. And so, something that at it’s heart is perfectly benign, and potentially even useful or entertaining — an extremely micro micro-blogging platform with a small per-post character limit — has become something that fosters a certain sense of resentment from those of us who choose not to partake of its offerings. If there’s been a Twitter backlash, it’s probably largely due to the defensive posture of its users. And I believe it’s partly this posture that my friend is talking about.
It seems to me that the other part of my friend’s argument — and the other part of my hesitance at signing up — is context. Like I said, I’m kinda burnt out on the whole social networking thing. But I recently joined Facebook just the same, and I’ve stuck around. And the reason I can stomach Facebook is context. When you sign up for Facebook you immediately have a context, and that context is your friends. What better context could there be? Everyone wants to stay connected with friends, and Facebook handles this better than any social network I’ve used so far. I think Twitter’s lack of context, while certainly being part of its charm, is another barrier to entry for many. For the technologically savvy (which I consider myself to be), and for those inclined to experiment with social networks in general (which I no longer consider myself to be so much), the lack of context is far less vexing. And those seem to be just the sorts of people using Twitter — the elite my friend is referring to. They seem to have figured out a way to make Twitter genuinely useful. For them. But by outward appearances, Twitter’s context seems to be less about staying connected and more about appearing clever amongst a group of peers.
Tweetie: A Twitter Client
To those elite Twitter lovers though, I say bully for you. You get on that Twitter client-of-the-day (I must admit, some of the client apps look beautiful enough to make me want to join purely from an interest in interface design) and you tweet your little hearts out. I bear no grudge against this. I just personally have no desire to be any more connected than I already am. I don’t see how Twitter will be useful or enjoyable for me. I don’t get Twitter, and I’m pretty sure I just don’t really want to.
And bully for me too. ‘Cause guess what? I don’t get Flickr either. Or MySpace. Or feed readers. In fact, there’s a whole lot of stuff I don’t get.
And all the snide little articles in the world aren’t going to change my mind.
11 Comments
Thank you! I thought I was alone in this, refusing to use twitter thing.
And you can add me to the list of those thinking it’s mostly for elite people making themselves more elite – that’s why I don’t like it as well. A well put entry.
Have a lovely day!
A little harsh to think twitter is mostly for those who seem to be “elite” For most of us, we just think of Twitter as a good way to market yourself or network with clients or friends. Especially beneficial if you run a small business or need to network to look for a different position. But if you don’t have a need for that, then it makes sense to not care about twitter.
I’ll tell you though, twitter is not the social network of the day and it is here to stay, well at least for quite awhile. Especially when many websites are advertising their twitter presence. Another really neat use for twitter is when some big event is going on in the news or whatever people comment on and keep up to date with it, kind of like a pseudo chat service.
One cool thing I found once through twitter was Jetblue was advertising seats on many of their flights starting at $20 one way! That was well worth following them for me.
Yeah, I’m not sure Twitter actually *is* elitist, but it sure comes across that way in the press. It’s main champions seem to be the tech elite, and they can come across as pretty damning of anyone not interested in the service. I never saw that sort of press from the Facebook camp. Facebook seemed inevitable, whereas Twitter seems like something people keep trying to talk me into.
It’s like pot smokers. Because they enjoy smoking pot, they assume that everyone should, and that if you happen not to enjoy pot-smoking you must be doing it wrong.
Well, no, I just don’t like it. And that defensive stance doesn’t help.
-systemsboy
Exactly, the press can be like that…
Good discussion all around, no worries if you don’t join twitter. I’m confident enough in my twitter liking that I don’t worry if I don’t talk people into it
A testament to how hot a topic Twitter is: This is the most commentary I’ve seen on this site in a long time. Seems like you just say “Twitter” these days and everyone has an opinion.
Interesting.
-systemsboy
How you don’t get feed readers to this day is beyond me. Google Reader especially! It is a most useful tool for getting my daily fix of tech, webcomics, and other such nerdy bits without having to open a million tabs(which is see what too many safari users do)
lol. you are the old man of the internet my friend;)
Yuh. It’s true. What can I say? I like the pictures.
-systemsboy
LOL. I used to h8 friendface and tweetorama too, but the iPhone apps for both of them make we want to use them. And it’s just so darn easy to post funny tidbits. I don’t blog anymore, especially with a newborn (baby#2). I only have time for twitastic. random bits of brain fragments for all to see. macvfx.
Yeah, I’d probably try it out if I wasn’t so durned busy blogging.
-systemsboy
Spend some time on Twitter, and you’ll see that different people use it in very different ways. Personally, I use it to exchange brief commentary and links to interesting things with people whose tastes are somewhat (but not too) similar to my own.
Given the extrordinary abundance of material online (most of it not even remotely worthwhile for me) Twitter provides a very elegant filter for helping me find what matters.
It’s also recripocal when used in tandem with a service like bit.ly, which allows me to see which links have received the most hits from others, and what type of material my own micro-audience tends to appreciate most.
That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less. And I love it.
Aw! So you’re saying you find me remotely worthwhile. That’s so nice!
I suppose the only way I’ll know if I really find Twitter useful is to try it. But that means creating another username and password on yet another system. And then I’ll have to log into it. And try to figure out how to use it. And try to figure out how to make it useful.
Facebook is immediately useful. So joining is immediately rewarding. Twitter seems like something people tried and found a use for, but didn’t have a need for going in. It seems like a solution to a problem I don’t have. I honestly can’t think of a reason to join.
-systemsboy