I’ve seen a lot of Twitter references lately, and it’s one of those social services I just don’t get.
The idea here is a registered user puts out a notice (I think it’s called a tweet) describing what they’re doing at a given moment, and it gets posted for the rest of the world. If you look at the main page and reload it a couple of times, you’ll get the idea. I suppose it was inevitable, given the MySpace and LiveJournal emotion notes and the “what I’m reading/listening to/watching” notices. I suppose it’s also closely related to instant messenger away notices.
But does anyone care about that kind of minutiae? Gamers will tell each other they’ve got to take a leak and I’ve even put “I’m downloading some brownware” on my instant messenger away notice as a gag, but does the rest of the entire Internet need to know this?
“I’m taking a crap.”
“I’m surfing for news.”
“I’m listening to the fan noise of the servers behind me.”
“I’m writing a tweet to tell you I’m writing a tweet that says I’m taking a crap.”
“I’m reading tweets to see if anyone’s life is more exciting than my own.”
Which is sadder? The narcissist telling everyone what they’re doing every moment of every day, or the people who sit around reading tweets? Do the latter think they’re going to find something exciting?
“OMFG! ~=4Saken1=~ tweeted that he’s getting a hummer! LOL!!1!1!!”
I wonder how long it will take to recurse into Second Life. Imagine this IM conversation:
LugNut88: Yo Bill, whatcha up to?
1337EmoKid: Oh, hey Ted. I’m playing Second Life. My avatar is at his computer writing out a tweet before he goes and takes a dump.
If there is any sense left in the world, Ted will then drive over to Bill’s house and severely beat him around the head and neck with a tire iron and smash Bill’s computer into tiny, tiny bits. However, I suspect it would actually end like this:
LugNut88: LOL!!1! My avatar just read that tweet! SL r0×0rs!!!1! I lubb0r teh Internet!!!!
on Apr 21st, 2007 at 8:19 am
“and I’ve even put “I’m downloading some brownware” on my instant messenger away notice as a gag”
Man, I’m going to have to IM you when you’re away now.
My friend in the next office brought up a twitter site called “twittervision” the other day. It’s a mashup of Google Maps and Twitter, and whenever someone posts something (“I’m taking a crap.”) it moves over to that part of the world.
Yeah, I’m not sure I get the whole thing either.
Russ
on Jun 29th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
[...] while back I took a dump on Twitter, the service that answers “What are you doing?” as often as you want to [...]