Twitter

[lowrey]

Zamb, Mike, I love you both but this is getting silly. You are both missing the point by a mile and this is becoming like 'tag-team hobo wrestling', so I'm going to leave it at that...

whaa... missing the point, I directly responded to a comment you made...? I'm silly? tag teaming? I didn't even read zamb's post before replying! dude, you are very weird at this business of internet debates.

[Fuuma]

Relativism is dangerous and ultimately leads to paralysis. Some things are better, some things are worse. Would the world be a better place without Twitter? Yes. Sure you can find some use for a social networking site but how valuable is this use when you could have solved the problem a number of ways prior to Facebook/Twitter but chose not to? The Iran revolts were for the most part a virtual mobilization, a brilliant marketing ploy. Paris '68 didn't need Twitter.

Maybe but the re-reading of the Event to circumvent it to the social and a primer for the triumph of the consumerist, carefree 80s by preeminent "leftist" intellectuals (AKA turncoats) through mainstream media could, maybe, have been heavily criticized by alternative media.

[Silk]

I agree with everyone against twitter. It is an obvious fad that really is for the ADD generation as Faust said, its the same people who have to be on facebook and any other internet sensation when they aren't glued to their cell phones. We all know a person like that, when they aren't texting, emailing, or even talking on the phone they need to be posting random nonsense on twitter. Twitter will fade away when the next best thing comes along. Name someone intelligent who uses twitter meaningfully. Ok maybe there are some people, but not that I've seen. All I've seen is immature attention whoring rap artists, athletes and people who think they're important. Lts C hw stpd we cn typ n stl be lgble, lol . Seriously, who is so bored to go out of their way to decipher codes from "celebs" about their personal life? All the controversy it has caused supports my view, as people are already just sick of hearing about it and sick of the drama it can bring (professional athletes). I look at twitter supporters as attention whores who are riding the internet sensation wave, just waiting for the next fad to "promote" themselves. I won't be supporting anyone who uses twitter.

[genevieveryoko]

Thank you Silk! The only reason I log-in to facebook, for the most part, is to contact people whose phone numbers I don't have...As for twitter, everyone I know that has a twitter already has a blog, or a website...it's like pleeeeease did you really have to go there???? Virtual masturbation?

[deleuze]

Maybe but the re-reading of the Event to circumvent it to the social and a primer for the triumph of the consumerist, carefree 80s by preeminent "leftist" intellectuals (AKA turncoats) through mainstream media could, maybe, have been heavily criticized by alternative media.

Sure there is a democratic structure inherent in Twitter that you don't find in mass media but a readily accessible and inclusive alternative media has existed in some form or another since the advent of the internet. The only advantage Twitter has is that it is marketed through mass media! Also one can't ignore the hypersimulated nature of Twitter, it's organic impulse to form a hyperreality. The "text protests" during the Iran elections were fruitless simply because it was enough to announce it on Twitter. Sure there were people in the streets but for the most part it was a virtual mobilisation, a declaration of revolt, and that was enough to satiate their demands for justice.

[galia]

I only use twitter to find out about parties, and facebook mostly for the same as well as keeping in touch with people I don't see often

twitter allowed me to save a friend from sleeping on the sidewalk once, so it obviously has its uses

[genevieveryoko]

maybe twitter has even saved a life?

I won't be using it!

[KM80]

I don't use anything, cell phone, twitter, facebook, myspace, I don't care if anyone else does, that's their deal.

But now your fucking up a whole thread about pictures of clothing talking about it, and that's even worse.

I liked Maldoror's picture, always great to see him in here!

[theetruscan]

Errr, for those who weren't aware, twitter is an excellent notification/casual organizing system. My twitter feed is friends I meet up with often and stores that have flash sales. A twitter post saying "going to x at time y" saves a dozen phone calls or text messages or emails or whatever. Do I check twitter every 8 seconds or whatnot? No, I don't have time. But it is quite useful for me.

Sure, there's noise/chatter/nonsense, but twitter is an opt-in system. As I said before, people here seem to be blaming the medium for their inability to filter signal from noise. If you talk to every telephone salesman for an hour or sign up for twitter feeds from every famous person you've ever heard of, you're going to be wasting your time and wondering what happened. But it's your own fault.

I really don't see a reason to single out a medium because it can be abused. Considering mass-mailing, telephone salesmen/direct marketing, spam messages, prolific twitterers and all the rest, I see people who for whatever reason want to basically overload a medium. all mediums have ways of combating this. All mediums that attain any kind of popularity will end up with these people because it makes money.

EDIT: I continue to find Deleuze hopelessly off the mark in everything he says.

[MoFiya]

Wow, didn't actually think my outfit would lead to such a epic long discussion but oh well...

[lowrey]

I really don't see a reason to single out a medium because it can be abused.

I don't think this is necessarily the case, I personally am more critical towards the fad, not necessarily the medium.

seems like for some reason this criticism or dislike is being taken super literally. lets put it this way, for me at least it's the same as someone saying "I don't like television", rarely would it mean that they absolutely disapprove the entire use of it as medium and loathe whoever invented it. they just don't care about watching television. in other words, saying that TV is full of crap nowadays doesn't mean that it has never benefited anyone.

should all this discussion be moved to its own thread? its getting way off topic

[merkuri]

twitter is a fad, like ipods and the motorized carriage.

[stereophobic]

One doesn't have to build such a narrow space around yourself, sure lots of people use Twitter and Facebook for the most inane and meaningless things, but isn't that the Internet since it's popularization? That's no reason or indication SOMEONE couldn't use it for something 'useful'.

Keep in touch with friends and family, find out what's happening in your town, immediately, TONIGHT, take a peek at what your favorite writer is up to. It's not all "immature attention whoring rap artists, athletes and people who think they're important".

The amount of generalizations and second-hand anecdotes brought up in the arguments made here against Twitter seems to me to smack more of a buying-in to a manufactured reality/opinion of the masses than the people who have cited their own personal experiences in defense of Twitter.

[Vanna]

Interesting discussion; the thing about opinions is that they belong to the Individual, and a consensus based upon them is not a necessity, or required.

[lowrey]

end of moved posts






carry on