Introduction
When Twitter first appeared on the scene, I thought it sounded like a
complete waste of time.
But as more and people I respect started singing its
praises, I thought I ought to give it a whirl.
That was a couple of months ago,
and here are my conclusions.
Am I alone in having doubts about Twitter?
I've already written about the management issues, as I see them, of using
Twitter in a classroom or as part of a presentation or workshop, so this article
will concern itself with Twitter from an individual's point of view.
What isTwitter?
In case you have forgotten, or didn’t know, Twitter is a sort of cross
between a rudimentary social networking environment and instant messaging. The
idea is that you let people know what you are doing, and are limited to 140
characters per post. People can follow you, and you can follow other people. In
this context, “follow” means the same as “friend” in other social networking
environments.
Good points
- Several people have said that they have found it very useful to get helpful
information. For example, I posted a “tweet” a few days ago in which I asked if
anyone knew of some good Web 2.0 humour on the web, and within 5 minutes I had
two or three good leads.
- It’s fun.
- It’s a good way of making a quick announcement. For example, some people,
myself included, sometimes use it to draw attention to their latest blog
post.
- Being limited to just 140 characters really focuses the attention. It’s not
that no word can be wasted — no character can be wasted.
- It provides the feeling (the illusion?) of being “connected”. At least, it
helps you keep in touch with people.
Bad points
- Although it’s true that you can get answers and help pretty quickly, Twitter
is actually severely limited in this regard. For a start, your message will only
be picked up by the people in your network, ie the people who are following you.
So if you’ve only got a handful of followers, your potential response rate
is going to be fairly limited.
In fact, it’s actually worse than this,
because the message will only be picked up by people who are online at the time.
Well, in theory someone could trawl through all the posts since they last logged
in, but that’s a bit hit and miss. By the same token, someone may respond, but
unless you’re online at the time you may well miss their answer.
But
there’s another point: people often think in absolutes, rather than in marginal
terms. It’s not a question of whether Twitter is good for helping you get
assistance, but whether the same effort would be better applied elsewhere, such
as in a forum. Depending on the nature of the issue at hand, you may well find
that a forum (yes, very Web 1.0–ish I know) is actually far better.
For
example, I love using Excel, but every so often I come up against a problem I
can’t work out. There are some excellent Excel newsgroups (yes, not even Web
1.0, I know!). I can post my problem there and know it will be visible to people
even in a few hours’ time. Also, because by definition these newsgroups are
frequented by people who have an interest in Excel, some of whom are (often
certificated) experts, it’s unlikely that my request will go completely
unanswered. In fact, I have often found that I get two or three brilliant
suggestions within minutes or, in a worst case scenario, by the next
morning.
- It can be fun, and it can be addictive too. However, I can think of quite a few things that can be fun as well, but that doesn't mean they're good for you. I do find the sort of breathless enthusiasm for everything a little worrying if it appears to be unaccompanied by much critical thinking.
One of the problems I find these days is that are so many of
these sorts of networks that I can spend hours of an evening doing nothing
except have conversations. And guess what? For the most part, they’re the same
people in all of these networks at the same time! So I can be chatting to
someone in Skype and notice that they have responded to a “tweet” I posted —
within Twitter. But they could have told me in Skype instead!
So to some
extent it’s networking not to achieve something, but simply for the sake of
networking. If you want to see the absurdity of all this, imagine that instead
of being in Skype and Twitter talking to the same person, you are in the same
room with them and also on the phone to them. Does that make any sense? Of
course not!
Getting back to the point about time-wasting, I think if
you’re going to waste time you should do so in a way that is not pointless. As
Suzuki, the Zen master put it:
“A Zen student must learn to waste time
conscientiously.”
Conclusions
The good points about Twitter are such that I would not say don’t try it, or
don’t use it. But I do think that, as one’s time is such a valuable resource,
one should adopt certain measures, as follows:
- Don’t allow anyone to follow you (you can block people),
and don’t follow everyone who wants to follow you. Otherwise, you can end up
wasting a lot of time reading tweets from people who are not really that
interested in you.
- Consider whether, in a particular instance, Twitter actually is the best
place to post your comment or query.
- Learn self-discipline. I now set aside time to have Twitter on, be available
on Skype, check my emails, and so on. I have found that being connected
continuously is too distracting.
And what am I going to do now? Announce this article in Twitter, of
course!
What do you
think? Please leave a comment.
© Terry Freedman Fri, 24 Aug 2007
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