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I feel like while twitter user base may not be growing, it's effects on the average person's social life has diminished. I feel like 5 years ago Twitter was re

I feel like while twitter user base may not be growing, it's effects on the average person's social life has diminished. I feel like 5 years ago Twitter was really popular among st friends and we talked about things people tweeted, etc. Since then I don't have a single friend who actively uses twitter, maybe it's that my preferences simply changed, but the overall visibility of twitter seems to be diminished.

dpeck 9y ago
Feel the same about every social network, and honestly the net has become "lonelier" for lack of a better word. Facebook is just people selling their junk, whether fingernail addons, kids clothing, or diet regimes. Twitter is really just people shouting into the ether, I enjoy it during college football games of collective "yay" or "nooo" moments with a few real life friends but otherwise its a high noise news feed. LinkedIn has a bizarre social aspect to it that confuses me. I don't know, maybe its me getting older, but more digitally connected than ever and feel much less personally connected than ever except with the friends that I keep direct/group imessage conversations going with for months and years at a time.
- skinnymuch 9y ago
  I really feel this way too. People talk about using FB groups or Twitter or some niche social network to be connected to a community, but I haven't felt that way in ages. Not since being active on a few phpbb and vbulletin boards. More connected in a way, but it feels so impersonal or I just can't figure out how people are finding their communities in these huge networks. Another personal example, IG direct messages aren't used that much from my experience (could be different for others or in the odd one). That few times I've been hit up or hit someone up on it, response or messages back and forth usually take forever. It kills the conversation. The only time a conversation has survived and a friendship began was when the convo quickly moved over to another medium (FBM in that case).
  - speedplane 9y ago
    I honestly feel more at home commenting here than on FB. On FB, you're speaking to everyone that you know, and whatever you say will likely show up in their face. I don't want to be talking to my college buddies, great aunts, and girlfriend's friends at the same time.
    - skinnymuch 9y ago
      I'm guessing you won't see this anymore. But your profile is empty here. I was talking about feeling like a community plus potentially making acquirances or friendships. I've never had any of that happen on HN. My profile is filled up. I'm guessing you haven't either. That doesn't really feel at home to me in the same way as the older days I'm describing. I do get your point though of feeling at home in a general sense.
bhandziuk 9y ago
I can't imagine using Twitter as a regular person. It seems nice as a new aggregator or celebrity soap box but doesn't seem to provide much value to regular people. I hear about announcements via twitter than then link to actual new stories and usually skip twitter entirely. Maybe I'm just not the right audience.

dpeck 9y ago

Feel the same about every social network, and honestly the net has become "lonelier" for lack of a better word. Facebook is just people selling their junk, whether fingernail addons, kids clothing, or diet regimes. Twitter is really just people shouting into the ether, I enjoy it during college football games of collective "yay" or "nooo" moments with a few real life friends but otherwise its a high noise news feed. LinkedIn has a bizarre social aspect to it that confuses me. I don't know, maybe its me getting older, but more digitally connected than ever and feel much less personally connected than ever except with the friends that I keep direct/group imessage conversations going with for months and years at a time.

skinnymuch 9y ago
I really feel this way too. People talk about using FB groups or Twitter or some niche social network to be connected to a community, but I haven't felt that way in ages. Not since being active on a few phpbb and vbulletin boards. More connected in a way, but it feels so impersonal or I just can't figure out how people are finding their communities in these huge networks. Another personal example, IG direct messages aren't used that much from my experience (could be different for others or in the odd one). That few times I've been hit up or hit someone up on it, response or messages back and forth usually take forever. It kills the conversation. The only time a conversation has survived and a friendship began was when the convo quickly moved over to another medium (FBM in that case).
- speedplane 9y ago
  I honestly feel more at home commenting here than on FB. On FB, you're speaking to everyone that you know, and whatever you say will likely show up in their face. I don't want to be talking to my college buddies, great aunts, and girlfriend's friends at the same time.
  - skinnymuch 9y ago
    I'm guessing you won't see this anymore. But your profile is empty here. I was talking about feeling like a community plus potentially making acquirances or friendships. I've never had any of that happen on HN. My profile is filled up. I'm guessing you haven't either. That doesn't really feel at home to me in the same way as the older days I'm describing. I do get your point though of feeling at home in a general sense.

bhandziuk 9y ago

I can't imagine using Twitter as a regular person. It seems nice as a new aggregator or celebrity soap box but doesn't seem to provide much value to regular people. I hear about announcements via twitter than then link to actual new stories and usually skip twitter entirely. Maybe I'm just not the right audience.