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Funny, but not at all surprising. I don't think I've ever read anything on Twitter. I can't imagine why anybody ever would. What is the use case where a huma

Funny, but not at all surprising. I don't think I've ever read anything on Twitter. I can't imagine why anybody ever would. What is the use case where a human being would ever actually read a piece of text coming from Twitter? The only one I can think that of is searching for one's own product name to see if anybody is writing about it. Is there another reason I'm missing?

jschuur 16y ago
The use case is that people are online, at their computer and see their Twitter client notify them of an interesting sound update while they were wasting away time, procrastinating or just plain looking for some diversion. They see an update from a source they trust and decide to click through to read it. That's not a very far stretch. People read things from Twitter all the time, that's not the problem. The issue is they only read the most recent stuff river of news style and who knows how many people they follow? Leo's Buzz to Twitter cross-poster should have had some kind of link tracking built into the URL to tell him if people were clicking on his updates. Leo says he had 15 updates in 2 weeks not broadcast, but when you look at his usual posting style, it's all notifications about his recent shows (which I get via iTunes automatically) and (self confessed) pictures of food he's eating. That's not exactly quality material that people will click through to. Had he posted more appealing content, his lack of updates would have been a greater loss.
- elblanco 16y ago
  >it's all notifications about his recent shows (which I get via iTunes automatically) and (self confessed) pictures of food he's eating Leo, after the thousands of words he's written promoting these types of social media, found out that that's what most people are writing about, trivialities of interest to no-one/notification information we already have two dozen ways of getting...and thus everybody finds everybody else's tweets annoying and instantly put into that same part of the brain that selectively ignores web advertising. That's why nobody noticed. I doubt most people would notice if most of the people they follow stopped tweeting. They're probably ignoring most of it anyway.
djacobs 16y ago
For me, the use of Twitter is: 1. I see X happening when I'm walking around (protesters, fireworks, concert, police barricades). 2. I search where I am in Tweetie. 3. I find out what's going on and, if I'm interested in it, might join. Twitter is all about discovery. Not communication.
- blasdel 16y ago
  But doesn't your 'discovery' use-case rely on a local herd of self-promoting new media douchebags using it to 'communicate'?
  - adbachman 16y ago
    I don't consider the folks from my town (Baltimore) self-promoting new media douchebags. They're people about my age who I know socially doing what they would normally do but stopping to mention it every once in awhile. I don't see it as "hey, hey, look at me!" but I have mellowed out a lot in the last few years, so it's probably just a difference of perspective. I'm optimistic with people I know and pessimistic with people I don't.
bbgm 16y ago
I actually get a ton of value out of Twitter both personally and professionally (it's a question of who you choose to follow). However, what your expectations from Twitter are shouldn't be the same as your expectations from a blog. It's great for finding out about events or what might be happening at an event, about getting instant feedback on something (your example, although it can extend beyond a product), and finding material that other smart people find. But if you want to understand and hear someone's thoughts or wisdom, it's not the right venue, and that's what some people are finding out.
csixty4 16y ago
The people I follow on Twitter basically fall into two categories: people I know in person and people I don't. I like knowing what's going on in the lives of people I know & care about. And, the people I don't know share interesting articles and links to stuff they've done, which I'm interested in. It's especially important to me as we all get older, move to other states, and have kids which eat into our free time. We can't hang out, but we can "hang out" with each other through Twitter.

jschuur 16y ago

The use case is that people are online, at their computer and see their Twitter client notify them of an interesting sound update while they were wasting away time, procrastinating or just plain looking for some diversion. They see an update from a source they trust and decide to click through to read it. That's not a very far stretch. People read things from Twitter all the time, that's not the problem. The issue is they only read the most recent stuff river of news style and who knows how many people they follow? Leo's Buzz to Twitter cross-poster should have had some kind of link tracking built into the URL to tell him if people were clicking on his updates. Leo says he had 15 updates in 2 weeks not broadcast, but when you look at his usual posting style, it's all notifications about his recent shows (which I get via iTunes automatically) and (self confessed) pictures of food he's eating. That's not exactly quality material that people will click through to. Had he posted more appealing content, his lack of updates would have been a greater loss.

elblanco 16y ago
>it's all notifications about his recent shows (which I get via iTunes automatically) and (self confessed) pictures of food he's eating Leo, after the thousands of words he's written promoting these types of social media, found out that that's what most people are writing about, trivialities of interest to no-one/notification information we already have two dozen ways of getting...and thus everybody finds everybody else's tweets annoying and instantly put into that same part of the brain that selectively ignores web advertising. That's why nobody noticed. I doubt most people would notice if most of the people they follow stopped tweeting. They're probably ignoring most of it anyway.

djacobs 16y ago

For me, the use of Twitter is: 1. I see X happening when I'm walking around (protesters, fireworks, concert, police barricades). 2. I search where I am in Tweetie. 3. I find out what's going on and, if I'm interested in it, might join. Twitter is all about discovery. Not communication.

blasdel 16y ago
But doesn't your 'discovery' use-case rely on a local herd of self-promoting new media douchebags using it to 'communicate'?
- adbachman 16y ago
  I don't consider the folks from my town (Baltimore) self-promoting new media douchebags. They're people about my age who I know socially doing what they would normally do but stopping to mention it every once in awhile. I don't see it as "hey, hey, look at me!" but I have mellowed out a lot in the last few years, so it's probably just a difference of perspective. I'm optimistic with people I know and pessimistic with people I don't.

bbgm 16y ago

I actually get a ton of value out of Twitter both personally and professionally (it's a question of who you choose to follow). However, what your expectations from Twitter are shouldn't be the same as your expectations from a blog. It's great for finding out about events or what might be happening at an event, about getting instant feedback on something (your example, although it can extend beyond a product), and finding material that other smart people find. But if you want to understand and hear someone's thoughts or wisdom, it's not the right venue, and that's what some people are finding out.

csixty4 16y ago

The people I follow on Twitter basically fall into two categories: people I know in person and people I don't. I like knowing what's going on in the lives of people I know & care about. And, the people I don't know share interesting articles and links to stuff they've done, which I'm interested in. It's especially important to me as we all get older, move to other states, and have kids which eat into our free time. We can't hang out, but we can "hang out" with each other through Twitter.