I’ve been in the middle of a big series of posts, so there are a lot of things I haven’t written about, but I think the, for lack of a better term, Twitter-knowledge cavern, is something I really want to talk about.
There’s been a lot of chatter about Twitter by non-Twitters (inspired, I think, by the uptick of Twitter-talk in the MSM, especially the NYT here and here). This discussion has been, in general, not so positive. At best, it seems that people unfamilar with the idea think it’s another version of the Facebook status feed, at worst, unbridled narcisism. After all, who are you to think that people care about your every move? (as epitomized by Current TV’s ‘Twouble with Twitters“)
And yet we live in a society both where we are constantly fascinated by every detail of famous/semi-famous people’s lives (how many pictures of John Mayer getting his dry cleaning do we need?) and that is constantly engaged in the over-share. We have an entire genre of TV that exists so we can see normalish people make fools of themselves losing weight, trying to get a man, and actively coniving to get their friends to eat bugs.
So what’s with the Twitter hate? Some observations on types:
*Unfamiliarity with the form. You haven’t seen that many tweets and from what you’ve heard, it’s just a giant group of people all sharing that they had ham and cheese for lunch. You don’t know about @zappos and @comcastcares or you don’t care.
*Base Snobbery. You think you’re too good for Twitter. This can be based on some unfamiliarity with the form or just that you think that you’re better than the average Twitterite. You will occasionally acknowledge a good and/or interesting use of Twitter, but in general, don’t like it. Often, you will insist it’s really about some pathological and sad need to over-share.
*Low Interest in (random) Others. You aren’t that interested in people as a mass and don’t really see the point. Like the haters of social media (below), you’d rather call or hang out with the people you do like than interact with them virtually.
*Social Media Overload. You have no time to think about Twitter because you already have issues keeping up with email, Facebook, IM, and the like. Possibly, you also think that there is absolutely nothing more you can learn about people that you know after all of those sources. Unlikely to try Twitter unless it seems like little or no effort is needed.
*Hatred of Social Media. You hate Facebook. You’d rather call someone than email them. You hate chatting online. Twitter is probably not for you, unless you really really like your phone/texting. You may also find it creepy that people you don’t know can invade into what you’re doing by following tweets.
*Hatred of Social Media as a Performance. You feel that somehow internet based interactions or certain ones aren’t authentic. This may be linked into the idea that people are somehow performing or crafting their identity (I want to play with this idea next week). Your feelings are not being helped by the publicizing of all the Twitter ghost writing going on. You may be convinced to try Twitter if close trusted friends are on it and seem to be genuine (or you may stop being their friends if you’re curmudgeonly enough).
*Dislike of Popular Things. Either you’ve already Tweeted and now you’re over it, or you’re tired of hearing about it and have no interest. Possibly you throw things when CNN tries to use Tweets as some substitute for actual news.
My observations are from a whole lot of conversations, but most recently from this Jezebel post. I would love to hear other types/be lead to other conversations on Twitter. Personally, I like it. I really love how it’s a constant stream of social science research, particularly on media, into my lap. I also really like using it as an on-the-go notepad, but I do often worry that I don’t have knowledge-dense enough posts.
Edit: Another good source of anti-Twitter talk, thanks to Meg.