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Thursday, July 05, 2007

the twitter phenomenon.

i want to encapsulate my thoughts on this whole twitter movement that's happening in such a terse statement, that it will make perfect sense appearing on the site itself, but it's near impossible. i think the best way to put it is:

no one gives a shit.


just like those livejournal posts where people discuss what they've been doing for the past few days (i could see a transcript of a vacation, but c'mon); just like those myspace blogs that talk about myspace blogs. just like those flickr pages of everything you've eaten today.

no one gives a shit.


there's a link up top on the site called "public timeline" which seems to post the last twenty or so posts in the past ten seconds or something along those lines. and i read it sometimes, in hopes that someone will go outside the box a little bit; maybe express a brief clarity, maybe create a tiny universe, maybe say something intriguing. because these things are really possible. i'm 'following' four twitters which do just that. in one hundred and forty characters or less, they give me something to read and at least absorb. some of rah's are a little on the X-D side for me, but i'm sure some of mine register on the 8-| scale for him as well. but in the middle of those extremes of our posts, there are bits of things that interest each other with what we write in there.

+ stephifty sandwich was worth the wait!
+ jwatkins debating whether i'll keep this feed going
+ legirl leaving in a few, and i still don't know how to get there.

no one gives a shit.


and i'm not saying that my feeds are any more on the side of revolution. my flickr had been a blind dash at throwing whatever i could point my camera at and capture. my livejournal hit its moments of self-importance. but even clicking in, and reading some of these 'tweets' that folks post is like fucking a blow up doll.

and i'm probably being a major elitist right now. but the thing is, i have no problem with each and every one of these users having an account. on any and all fronts. but i just wish there was a little bit more soul behind those dead eye[con]s. it's hard trying to point this out, without saying, "they should be more like us. the way we do it is right." because, in essence, that's what i'm saying. but some of this information doesn't need to be out there. it's that gabby bullshit that prevents a streamlined society.

and there i was sitting in die hard,
loving the tricked out explosions
which costs multimillions.



okay. okay.
i guess it's just frustrating to know the potential of a system being put to waste. i've looked at those limited character allowances as a challenge. just another new media to create within. i'm not saying my twitter is great. but i'm proud that at least it's different. and i'd love to find more just like mine.

+ zero606 I am trying to come up with a new logo for my blog and for my shopping log. I need an inspiration!
+ razzie I think imma take a shower right now

because, jesus.

-


5 comments:

.steve said...

followup:
finally found one that's not doing the thing that They love to do.

as far as i can tell, someone loves steven wright so much, they started writing one liners much like him. these may be wright originals, but i don't know his material well enough to know whether or not it is.

this is amazing for any fan of the king of the one line room killer.

http://twitter.com/notstevenwright

Writer said...

You are, in fact, being an elitist. Thanks for recognizing it.

On that note, I think it's HILAROUS that the four twitters you follow that you consider to have soul, are all people you know. Did you ever think that the posts have more meaning to you because you know the authors, and that because you don't know other twitter authors you're missing out on a whole other universe?

Twitter is dumb. No one cares, you're right. Not even about yours. So if no one cares, why do you care so much to write all this?

You need to figure yourself out. Then you'll stop caring and do your thing.

.steve said...

i knew you'd be someone who had something against this post. i knew it. you hate when i judge people. you hate when i express opinions about people.

it's one of those typical situations that, for some reason, is okay to say to someone you know, but not to people who you don't know. they just need to apply themselves. there is NO NEED to start something or to participate in something if you're not going to go all the damn way. and to post about lunch or how your boss is a meanie butt is just blabbering.

if you were to read the twitters of kailyn, brian, dave, that dude craig... those are the ones that i feel are ones worth reading. they have something behind them. rahul is somewhere in the middle. when he 'pitched' it to me, he described it as a blog made up of away messages. i wasn't into it. when i finally realized something it might be good for, i started to go to it for that reason. and when i pitched it to brian and kailyn, maybe that's why they do things a little bit more that way. we're not the kind of people that just air our shit out, and if we do, we're going to do it with some sort of creative spin on it.

there is a guy who just added me who has taken his twitter in the same sort of direction as me. maybe it's just the style of writing i like because i participate in it, or because that's the kind of things i've always wanted to read, but i like when things are just a little bit weird like that.

what i'm trying to say is i want to find people who aren't just writing a one-liner to have people react in an, "i know, riiight?!" fashion.

@sillykitty34 I WAS JUST THERE!!!

-- whatever... use your cell phone.

and yeah, twitter IS dumb, for the most part. there's no need. unless you're going to use it for some form of entertainment. do u have one? do u know that u can receive text messages when users update their twitter? during the day, when i get a txt that says:

"ViaOrifi: Overheard in supermarket: "That's a great cemetery!""

that's entertainment to me. i enjoy that shit. if i had a user on my list that went something like:

"babyQueen: one too many drinks last night = my whole world upside down :p~~~"

what the fuck do i care.
REALLY...
no one gives a shit.

what i'm saying is, at least with my kinds of twitter entries, the point, almost is to dissect a moment. these brief scenarios can go ANYWHERE. it might make people take an idea or quote or character and run with it in their mind. it could be catalytic.

at least, that's the point. there are people out there who would enjoy reading this stuff. i know that for sure.

and don't tell me i need to figure myself out, cuz i know myself just fine. just because i'm not where i want to be doesn't mean i don't know who i am. i'm already doing my thing.

Writer said...

I've read the twitters (god I hate that fucking word) of Kailyn, Rahul and Dave, and I hate them all. I still don't know what the fuck they mean. I don't care. Why do I need to check someone's twitter? One more step going out of my way to read someone else's "insight".

Besides, what "going all the way" means to you, doesn't necessarily apply to everyone else. Maybe everyone else is using twitter for exactly what they want.

If you don't like other people's twitters, don't read them.

.steve said...

twitter is a bullshit word. i was talking to rahul the other day about the fact that programmers are LOVING the fad of naming their widgets ridiculous wordlets.

the thing is, if you're reading a twitter, and hoping to really extract information, it's definitely useless. if you're writing into a twitter and trying to impart information, it's just as frivolous. which is why i used a key word in my last comment, and that is ENTERTAINMENT.

the posts i like are more like this:

kailyn: Kathe Kollwitz will haunt starving children and I will haunt Kathe Kollwitz.

brian: Yesterday was a bird with it's neck broken, the eyes straight and the head sideways. Today is an animal spilled across the street.

dave: I've been clinically dead for two days. This morning I woke up and couldn't stop breathing.

the kinds of posts i DON'T like are these:

rahul: On the 4th season of Entourage.
or
rahul: Lazy Sunday.

i guess, i realize, the less they "mean," the better. and your post is INCREDIBLY valid.

why do i need to check someone's twitter?

you should never NEED to. you should LIKE to. and if their insight can be displayed across 140 characters, please tell them to give up that whole insight thing. i like what my friends MAY write on them, creatively.

in a way, this might sound like i'm talking up the writing abilities of myself or the people i enjoy, but it'd be like asking a legit band (us, the writers) to make the best two minute song they possibly could using ONLY an 8 bit midi synth (twitter). the result might not show off the artists' wide range of talent, but i'm interested to see where they'd take it.

while 'going all the way,' yes, is a term that can be construed a ton of different ways, i think there is definitely no way to say that a majority of these things even go half of the way. it's like showing up to a party in "whateverrrrrr".

and i'm not saying they're using the service WRONG. i'm saying that i'm disappointed in the number of people who use it the way i know it can be used.

it's like in those video games where you can create ANY type of character you want AT ALL, and you might just change around the eye color a little bit.

really, what the point i'm trying to make is, i want to see more creative twitters. forget what i've said about the ones that exist. i have almost NO opinion on those. what i'm really saying is i'd love to see more of the ones that appeal to me.

which is really what everyone is saying about all entertainment all the time.