Stock market people don’t understand (or like) stable equilibriums. If it’s not growing, then it’s “failing.”
“We’ll uprank your search Googles and enlikenate your Facebook page! The Internet is magic and unicorns!” *Throws glitter*
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If you only follow people you are interested in or amused by that are on Twitter and don’t splay out crap it can be fun/informative/useful so long as you can cope with the firehose of content. There are some accounts like https://twitter.com/SwiftOnSecurity that are why I continue to log on, along with keeping track of what the latest horrors various InfoSec people have found (there are a lot of solid security researchers on Twitter). It used to be you could rant at companies with poor customer service and get very quick responses via Twitter, it’s not as effective as it once was but my wife has gotten SouthWest and Delta to fix things that way.
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Basically, this. I know Twitter makes it a lot easier to fill your feed with junk by recommending you follow a bunch of random celebrity accounts when you first sign up (I guess they figured a timeline full of crap was better first-use experience than an empty timeline), but IMO Twitter is unalgorithmable, and their attempts to shove “popular” content at newcomers just make the service look like it’s full of trash.
Here’s who I follow, in broad strokes:
- A few scientists, like Phil Plait and Bobak Ferdowsi (JPL’s mohawk man)
- Cast and crew members for shows I watch (though I’ve been whittling that down due to signal/noise overload)
- Basically all of LoadingReadyRun
- Artists whose work I like
- A couple of comedy accounts (like SarcasticRover)
- Online friends I’ve made in various fandoms
- Event accounts (like conventions I’m going to be attending)
- A couple of specific journalists (I also have a local news list with a few local news stations in it that I check whenever I need to find out what’s going on in town)
All told, I follow just shy of 200 accounts, and my timeline moves at a relatively brisk pace. In a 24 hour period, I can accumulate between 500 and 1000 new tweets in my timeline. Even without checking it for hours though, it’s easy to keep up with because of the length of each message, and the fact that I don’t necessarily read every tweet. My own tweets are links to (or retweets of) things I find interesting, comments about what’s going on around me, and simple conversations with friends. I’ve occasionally used it to contact a person or company for help with something, but that often moves to a more suitable medium like email once initial contact has been made.
Basically, I use Twitter as a way to keep up with people I know or am a fan of, with a smattering of event-related stuff as well. I do get some news from Twitter, but only because it’s something that’s hit my corner of the grapevine; I’ve tried following actual news sites and tech press, and it’s just overwhelming. For day-to-day news, I usually stick to RSS feeds.
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usenet + growing up on xbox live = reddit
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That is because companies go on the stock market in the belief that they will grow by gaining investors in search of profit. If you have a stable, reliable company, keep it private. There’s one still going around here that started in the 1770s and is still going, and I believe the Revere metalfounding business was still going up to the 21st century (haven’t checked though).
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If gibberish out
Snapchat is mainly to allow people to get laid.
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Yeah, that’s usually how it goes…
When people post why they don’t like twitter I often wonder “Did they just join and follow a bunch of celebrities or something?”
I find twitter great for keeping up with people I actually know (either near or far) and communicating with them either in real time or at my convenience. If you need to say something that’s more than a few lines, you send a direct message instead. Easier than email, not as finicky as texting, and you don’t need the person instantly available, they can read and reply at their leisure.
Of course, if you don’t have any use for that, then Twitter isn’t for you, but celebrities are so often brought up as if you’re forced to read what they have to say or something.
Of course, my friends DO share a lot of cat pictures and memes on their feeds. =o)
Oh! And whatever you do, stay away from the website! I find it nigh unusable and always use a third party client! No idea how Twitter can make money from that.
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Keen observation, but why isn’t the concluding consensus that shareholders are limited in range, scope, and value rather than Twitter per se?
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I don’t see that they’re mutually exclusive, do you?
Speaking of other Internet darlings that are taking the gas pipe: SoundCloud has lost over $70M in 2 years, board cites “material uncertainties”.
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If Facebook is a place where friends talk about a lot of different topics, Twitter is a place where strangers share common interests. So follow according to your interest or business area, follow lots and lots, tweet a few times a day, and eventually you’ll see some real people emerge from the noise. Once you click into a good network you can start winding back who you follow a bit and make sure it is more focused. It is quite a good channel for a lot of businesses and interests.
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This makes sense. It’s way more work than I’m willing to put into it though.
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maybe I’m using Twitter … well, wrong …
Is there a right way? How do you actually use twitter and what would the right way be? And, I’m not trying to be snarky I’m genuinely curious.
Every headline that describes the emotions of “Wall Street” in conjunction with the reactions of “Wall Street” kinda piss me off for that exact reason.
“Google reports earnings of $2B, Wall Street throws tantrum”. Wall Street and it’s commodification of Every Known Human Activity can go and fuck itself sideways. since it’s already fucked us pretty well
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Same. I get “Happy Birthday” wishes on a fairly regular basis from sites that needed a birthdate for the account. Also, if the organization skills are available, my answers to the security challenge questions rarely, if ever, have anything to do with the question being asked.
“Security Question: Make/model of your first car:”
“Answer: Primary integration with horsepiss analysis”.
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I follow scientists and artists on the site (and tags like #sciart), I use that as fuel for inspiration, interest, and ideas. (I live in a relatively remote location when it comes to my interests, so it’s a water cooler of sorts as well.) This might not be right for you, because it does involve effort, but my usage doesn’t support the bumper sticker model.
I also find social media exhausting, so I find it convenient to mirror what I share/do on Twitter with other social media accounts.
In this case, apparently so.
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Good to know. Quite OT, Paul Revere is remembered for all the wrong reasons - his role in the American Revolution was probably far less significant than his role as a technology enabler in Massachusetts.
Edit - to be clear, to my mind Revere seems to me a very admirable character who was actually far more useful to the early United States than some of the better known names. It’s a pity that so few modern capitalists are really trying to make money out of something that’s actually of real benefit to a lot of people. Musk may do it. Some of the things Google is doing are really useful. But do we actually need Twitter? That’s why I don’t understand why it still exists.
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I can see why, given that that probably involves less shouting and galloping around on horseback.
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