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I thought this was a bit illuminating: > During the first two weeks of February, he tweeted, on average, more than 15 times a day. He refrained completely from

I thought this was a bit illuminating: > During the first two weeks of February, he tweeted, on average, more than 15 times a day. He refrained completely from tweeting on only five days—all on weekends. That’s far from obsessive, but it’s even farther from “unplugged.” It is, in fact the opposite of “unplugged.” More than 15 tweets per day is far from obsessive? I'm not much of a Twitter user, but that does seem like a lot.

corobo 9y ago
Yeah 15 per day does seem obsessive. I wouldn't be surprised to find I've tweeted less than 15 times this year so far
icebraining 9y ago
Well, it's not Twitter, but my brother often reaches the limit of 250 sms/day of his cell plan, so 15 doesn't sound much. I don't think you can measure it in absolute numbers, though; as far as I know, "obsessive behavior" is defined by factors such as the negative effects on the rest of your life.
- majewsky 9y ago
  > it's not Twitter And that's the problem with this comparison. SMS are not used like tweets, they're used like IM messages. So 250 SMS per day should be compared to e.g. 250 Telegram messages per day, not to 250 tweets per day.
  - icebraining 9y ago
    Yes, that is the problem, that's why I wrote that :) Still, there's back-and-forth in Twitter too. Plus the character limit, which is 14x higher in Telegram (though smaller in SMSs).
matt4077 9y ago
For journalists, it’s arguably part of the job. Both as personal PR, as well as cultivating sources and being well-informed. A lot of actual news does happen on Twitter these days.
7dare 9y ago
That's because it's taken out of context: the fifteen tweets could well be responses to other tweets, maybe even in a conversational back-and-forth thread. I can easily imagine reddit users or even HN users making those kinds of daily contributions.
stordoff 9y ago
15 doesn't seem all that high - a few things you want to say, a few responses to people's replies, then maybe a back-and-forth conversation with someone adds up pretty quickly. I think time spent might be a better measure though - e.g. I can fire off 5 tweets in a couple of minutes, then never think about Twitter from the rest of the day, or I can spend an hour crafting a single tweet, reading replies and other feeds, and repeatedly check for new responses. I'd say the latter is much more akin to obsessive behaviour, but has a much lower tweets/day average.

corobo 9y ago

Yeah 15 per day does seem obsessive. I wouldn't be surprised to find I've tweeted less than 15 times this year so far

icebraining 9y ago

Well, it's not Twitter, but my brother often reaches the limit of 250 sms/day of his cell plan, so 15 doesn't sound much. I don't think you can measure it in absolute numbers, though; as far as I know, "obsessive behavior" is defined by factors such as the negative effects on the rest of your life.

majewsky 9y ago
> it's not Twitter And that's the problem with this comparison. SMS are not used like tweets, they're used like IM messages. So 250 SMS per day should be compared to e.g. 250 Telegram messages per day, not to 250 tweets per day.
- icebraining 9y ago
  Yes, that is the problem, that's why I wrote that :) Still, there's back-and-forth in Twitter too. Plus the character limit, which is 14x higher in Telegram (though smaller in SMSs).

matt4077 9y ago

For journalists, it’s arguably part of the job. Both as personal PR, as well as cultivating sources and being well-informed. A lot of actual news does happen on Twitter these days.

7dare 9y ago

That's because it's taken out of context: the fifteen tweets could well be responses to other tweets, maybe even in a conversational back-and-forth thread. I can easily imagine reddit users or even HN users making those kinds of daily contributions.

stordoff 9y ago

15 doesn't seem all that high - a few things you want to say, a few responses to people's replies, then maybe a back-and-forth conversation with someone adds up pretty quickly. I think time spent might be a better measure though - e.g. I can fire off 5 tweets in a couple of minutes, then never think about Twitter from the rest of the day, or I can spend an hour crafting a single tweet, reading replies and other feeds, and repeatedly check for new responses. I'd say the latter is much more akin to obsessive behaviour, but has a much lower tweets/day average.