What was I doing?
Twitter was an interesting experiment. I deleted my profile at 11.04 this morning*, exactly 24 hours after opening it, having posted 27 updates of less than 140 characters each, including one about this morning's breakfast, which seemed in the spirit of Twitter. There is no snobbery in my decision - I had no concrete plans to stay long, but entered it with good intentions and not to prove a point. Better to experience something and reject it than reject it out of hand.
It's clear that tons of people I know and respect use it, and use it all the time, morning and night, probably the same ones who maintain their own FaceBook page and have an iPhone or similar, which seems to be the device from which most people "update" from. Hey, fair play, it gave me something to do yesterday when I couldn't think of anything to write and began to doubt that I would ever write again (I did); and I was amazed by how quickly my "followers" multiplied without me lifting a finger, but I had nothing interesting to tell anybody, and I can read what Stephen Fry writes without having a profile on Twitter myself. (I doubt I will, by the way. In the last 24 hours, he's been filming an episode of Bones and missed his lunch which made him crotchety.) My own personal opinion is that Twitter is a passing fad for stalkers, narcissists and people who talk to themselves. I am all three of those things, which is why I am confident that I am correct.
I would apologise to all those nice people who opted to "follow" me and now feel betrayed and bereft, but I think they'll get over it. (Special thanks to RickyBee, who was my last "follower" before I shut down.)
*Actually it was 11.06 by the time I actually confirmed it, so not as anally-retentive as you thought.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 10:03 AM
29 Comments
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29 Comments:
I am upset to have missed your magnificant last tweets due to being at university and not having an iPhone - is there a screen grab of them? Or maybe you could just tell me what you had for breakfast.
You're a smart man, Andrew.
I think you've nailed the reasons why Twitter is so attractive perfectly. As I too am all of those things, I knew I had to stay away. Your brief account reassures me that I made the right decision.
-- David
p.s. did you see that they are apparently planning of making "Life of Pi" into a movie?!
You'll live on at search.twitter.com and I imagine that someone else will grab the account and impersonate you within about 24 hours!
Sardine, boiled egg, Polish sausage, dash of hot pepper sauce. That is the most interesting breakfast you will read about on Twitter today, or any other day.
"Nothing to say" is an excuse, you tell people "what are you doing" - some will find that interesting, some will not.
Wil Wheaton (Star Trek) tells us about the new book he has written (and self published) and how excited he was to see the new Watchmen movie.
Gregg Grunberg (Heroes) tells us about the new IPhone application he's conceived and romantic things he does for his girlfriend.
Boris Johnson (London) tells us he's been planting the first of 10,000 trees and that security told him of for cycling inside city hall.
David Mitchell (Peep) doesn't get it and keeps posting links to his newspaper articles.
Jonathan Ross (Friday) tells us hes playing in the snow and tweets a picture of his wife reading a book.
Simon Mayo (Kermode) watches Zombie Honeymoon, so that we don't have to, and tweets what he thinks about it - and that you will be on this Friday - at least you don't have to make up excuses why you aren't following him ... you delete your account! ;)
You tart! That's the equivalent of 1,169 internet one night stands. You didn't even say good bye. You just quietly got up, got dressed whilst we didn't notice, and then left without even leaving your number. I feel violated!
Ironically it's my narcissism that keeps me away from twittering - I fairly rigorously keep a blog every day and often it's a struggle to get enough bits in it that I'm fairly happy with - I couldn't bring myself to make 'It's just started raining' or 'I'm sat at the computer' type tweets unless I had something terribly witty, insightful or informative to say about the rain or sitting at the computer. But over a longer blog post I can waffle around for a bit and usually achieve something that satisfies me on some level, but it's more of a snowball effect rather than finally coming up with a 'good bit' that would make a good tweet.
There's no reason why individual tweets need be at all interesting, I understand, it's more the cumulative narrative of your life, but my vanity as a 'writer' (I'm not really a writer, but that's how I think of my blogging) would make it hard for me to decide something was good enough to tweet. And my blog's ropey enough as it is without people having already read the best bits on twitter!
I'd particularly hate to be someone like you or Richard on twitter, as if I tweeted @ a celeb I'd be wondering if they knew who I was or not - at least we plebs know where we stand!
I feel bereft but not betrayed. It was fun while it lasted.
I also imagine Twitter to be a passing fad. But I'm part of it until it passes. But the 'watch a celeb' thing has got boring for me already. I still 'follow' St Stephen - as is the Twitlaw - but others (whom I shall not name) seem to get rather carried away - asking for crossword clues from their bored minions, or throwing out 100s of quirky updates. So much so that if you do 'know' anyone on there you miss out on their.... no, it's no good. It's all indefensible. It's like going on Radio 5 Live to defend your position as the King of Onanism. It doesn't bear talking about. I denyed Facebook and now I've got hooked into this. I am Michael Coreleone in The Godfather part 3:
"I tried to get out, but they kept pulling me back in."
I twitter therefore I am (I am stipeysullivan)
and as a non-celeb - most of my followers are actually robots - like Barack Obama's IT team. P1ssing in the wind in 140 characters or less. Sigh.
Tristan, if I'd announced that I was leaving, it would have looked like I was trying to get you to beg me to stay, which I had no intention of doing!
I get between 200 and 300 visitors to my website. These are the people who matter to me. The others are either afraid of commitment, didn't give much of a fuck in the first place, or else they can't handle reading anything longer than 140 characters.
Stellar Drift: I have no intention of posting pictures of loved ones reading a book, or revealing anything romantic or truly personal, so it would just be breakfast. If I have a really important breakfast, I'll blog about it. The decision: to blog or not to blog is key. If I can be bothered to start a new entry and find a pic and think of a headline, it's probably worth me blogging about.
I think blogs are the truth liberator of writers. They require a little bit of thought. Twitter is just too busy and ephemeral for my liking. Perhaps if I was as rich and successful and yet, apparently, as lonely as Stephen Fry seems to be, I'd find Twitter a lifeline. (He's also a technophile, and I'm not really. You should see my phone.)
Aww, I'll miss you on Twitter. You were the one person I was genuinely hoping would turn up sooner or later, and I'm sad you feel this way, although I fully understand.
Is fry really lonely though? He's in a foreign country shooting some scenes for a tv show - seems likely he wouldn't have a lot of personal relations over there. So he 'chats' a bit from his mobile with people are some level of fans.
Of course the 'problem' for people following him is he tries to reply to their questions, and the reader only sees half the conversation "Yes, when I get back", "I think its 224", "Check google", "No I never did", "very hot I'm sure" - huh? (you could look up the questions but that's a day job!)
In the end its just another 'thing' on the net, a new invention - I think because one doesn't like something one should be careful to dismiss it as a passing fad (the whole point of a small word limit is to keep things concise - there is a tendency to write too many words in all human endeavors).
What might kill it is when (if) they start to charge for it, otherwise I think it finds its natural niche.
Perhaps even a useful one - you can send a picture from your phone to the account, and when that plane crash landed on the Hudson river, a guy on the quay raised his Iphone and took a picture and sent it to twitter - that first picture of the crash spread around the world in minutes and was the first shown by news agencies before the real TV crews got down there 20-25 minutes later... Perhaps it is perfect for stalkers (or those who use it to automatically tell people that they have written a new blog ;)
"I get between 200 and 300 visitors to my website. These are the people who matter to me."
I don't feel bereft anymore. I feel special!
Here's a twoosh in honour of your time on Twitter (a 'twoosh', as I'm sure you'll know, being a tweet of exactly 140 characters).
Oh that Andrew Collins. He twittered here, he twittered away, now he's gone. Like a street poet passing at night, leaving fond memories. Bye
I suspect at some point you'll reconsider and we'll see you back again!
I set up the twitter account yesterday and have been feeling weird ever since. It notified me that my friend was on there and set me to follow him, something about this felt rather invasive, maybe I'm just a tad old fashioned. I started following some well known types, but that made me feel like one of the Plaster Casters. I will be removing my twitter profile tonight, the geek in me makes me try these things, the 43 year old man who remembers when the occasional phone call was something we looked forward to makes me stop again.
You're a journalist who blogs, that in itself is impressive. Most journos are terrified of bloggers.
I wasn't calling you a snob in my previous comment, by the way.
Did you see the Brits?
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
Oops, sorry for removing that comment, J Watson - I shouldn't have posted it in the first place, and did so without reading it to the end. Email me and I'll explain why. Nothing sinister, I promise.
Stellar Drift - you're spot on, though I don't think it'll be the charging that'll kill it (as I'm sure they'd make it ad-supported before going that way). I think it'll be all the celebs getting bored of it...
I wrote a blog on the subject, though I'm not sure whether Andrew will deem it acceptable for me to put the URL here... I'll try...
http://socialmediablog.tamar.com/2009/02/how-will-fame-change-twitter.html
Henry
It still serves me well in my jobhunting, which is why I was so happy with it in the first place. I know you're not jobhunting, Andrew, so I guessed you wouldn't be interested. Now, if only it will serve me well in my jobfinding...!
Kirstie (Following: 17 Followers: 13 - and very happy with that)
And there was I, sitting back and waiting for you to entertain me. I don't blame you for deleting your account. I ought to do that same.
Twitter makes me feel slightly dirty. Not in the good way, either.
Pity, I think you might have liked it if you gave it more of a chance, It doesn't replace your blog, and might direct more people here. Your mate Richard Herring seems to have embraced it though.
Yes, but what are you doing RIGHT NOW?
*waits*
Well during my boring day at work I spent an unhealthy anount of time Twittering to myself and my comment yesterday that I might be Cyber-schizophrenic slightly came too close for comfort. So I praise you for turning tail and running away from the crowd. Just wish I could be so brave and go cold turkey. I think as a whole I don't think the vast majority of Twitter users could spend prolonged period of time without accessing the world through it. Has virtual reality has really taken over actual reality?
It's a good and valid argument Andrew, I'll give you that.
If Richard hadn't made me burst out laughing just now with his twitterings I would probably have cancelled my Twitter account forthwith, enthused anew with a freshly rational mind. But now I probably won't, and you can blame that Mr H... and the other (admittedly rare) fun twitterers....eg here is a link given by the lonely Stephen Fry the other day which also made me giggle :-)
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theonion.com%2Fcontent%2Fvideo%2Fsony_releases_new_stupid_piece_of&h=9ff27e31a9ec4e8b93495c8ee14f1547
I think it works in an horrendously different way if you're 'famous' in any way. It's almost as if you've created yourself a huge, interactive fan club overnight, and every one of those people a) think they know you and b) want to reply to you whenever you say anything even mildly interesting that affects them in any way.
I personally don't use my real name on there, and am therefore hidden from people at work, and basically have around 90 people I follow (the overwhelming majority of which are my real, solid mates as opposed to people that I know) and realistically, an equivalent number follow me, plus a few loons that frankly, God only knows why they do.
My personal advise would be, if you fancied playing with it as a really fun / and actually useful thing for you and your *real friends* to keep in constant touch (sort of a superannuated live chat room which is constantly open, that you can just shout a hello in to occasionally), then rejoin, and use a nickname that only your friends will know (or tell them!). you can also keep your updates private so only the people you choose to let can see them. Otherwise, seriously, it's the biggest ego-wank I've ever seen for people with public profiles - plus, the biggest procrastination time sucker in existence (as if we needed another!)
Andrew, I was a follower but I've deleted my account too. Didn't see the point of it. Then I don't get Facebook either...
My kids, on the other hand love 'em both. It's a generational thing I think. We're Gen X; they're Gen Y. (If that means nothing to you, look it up. The whole Gen Y stuff is fascinating. If it means something to you, forgive my patronising condescension...)
David, Liverpool
(OakfieldDavid RIP)
I almost deleted my Twitter after 24 hours too. But I didn't and that's just something I'll have to live with for the rest of my days. Or until the fad passes...
What I find most surprising about the growth of Twitter is simply the extent to which it was ignored in the days when it was, to my mind, genuinely useful and has grown huge since its killer feature was removed from those of us outside the USA.
Various of my friends and family used to use it in the days when Twitter sent its updates as (free) texts to mobile phones. This functionality disappeared (because it was costing the owners of Twitter a fortune) last year and, since then, our use of it has generally become more sporadic.
I've never seen anything narcissistic about the service, however. Quite frankly, I don't believe that people whom I don't personally know would find my updates at all interesting (nor would they be particularly meaningful) and I don't expect them to follow me. Maybe Twitter, to me and my friends, is rather like a quiet chat in a crowded pub.
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