5 ms·

Honest question: what's the point of twitter?

by zeth___ 9y ago

simplify 9y ago
It's like an RSS reader but for people & products. At least that's how I use it.
- cookiecaper 9y ago
  Most consumption-oriented social media is "like an RSS reader". HN is a news aggregator with a forum bolted onto the bottom of the stories. What is Facebook? It's an RSS feed of your friends and family's lives. Facebook has replaced Blogger et al, which primarily syndicated through actual RSS, because it was an accessible, simple way to a) create a feed and b) allow publishers to retain some control over their content (by e.g. blocking an undesirable consumer). You had to have some technical competency to set up a blog and an RSS reader, and all Facebook did was fix that and bring the power of syndication to the RSS-incapable masses. As far as I'm concerned, Twitter's value proposition is that it's supposed to be a continuous, temporary real-time vein on whatever is happening at that moment. It doesn't really do a good job of that filling that niche IMO. The only time I've had an impulse to use Twitter is during something like a live news event, and these days I think something like Snapchat does this better (though they're both infuriatingly difficult to access and navigate, decimating their practical utility). In practice Twitter has regressed to the lowest common denominator of "microblogging". The thing that continues to give it power is its interactivity. Because the messages are so short and feel so quick, Twitter ensures that people will see our message, react, and that hits our feedback loops ASAP, demanding follow-on after follow-on. One interpretation of today's Twitter is that it's just the unwashed masses clamoring for a fleeting glimpse of attention from someone they admire. This corresponds with Twitter's early adoption as a celebrity messaging platform for actors (iirc Ashton Kutcher was the first Twitter user to get 1M followers). The only time Twitter's current incarnation is useful is when it allows the everyman to get a message to someone else who would be guarded, e.g., common citizens potentially inciting a credible presidential campaign as in the infamous Russ_Steinberg tweet [0] . It's depressing to think that so much behavior hinges on this rabid attention-vying, but it's also impossible to deny the power when some otherwise-inaccessible influence is established. I assume this is why people continue to use it, despite the fact that 99% of tweets drop into the void. [0] http://archive.is/Imikq http://archive.is/Imikq
  - simplify 9y ago
    I use twitter to follow interesting programming people and tech. It works well. Sorry if that doesn't fit your depressing view of twitter.
  - bad_user 9y ago
    > HN is a news aggregator I cannot filter HN's feed to only get content from the people I want to follow. And don't tell me about shitty apps. Therefore it does not qualify as an RSS reader.
jsemrau 9y ago
I tried to make Twitter work for me by only following people I am genuinely interested in. (Founders, CEO's, etc) but even after that I am not engaged.
- duxup 9y ago
  Same, my feed was still filled with inane posts no matter how much I tried to mess with it. I just gave up.
  - VectorLock 9y ago
    Embrace the banality.
    - duxup 9y ago
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd2OmVTKkbY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd2OmVTKkbY
zrb05293 9y ago
I enjoyed the social aspect of it. Learning from new people. I use Manton Reece’s service Micro.Blog now and love it.
Donzo 9y ago
Twitter is great for following popular figures and companies. Users can receive news briefs directly from these sources. Often I will read internet journalism about tweets I read a day after I read them on Twitter. Being on Twitter is like being at an on-call press conference with all of your subjects of interest 24 hours a day. It's actually pretty bad ass. It's not all heavy with prose. It's heavy with meaning. Unlike my Facebook network, which is almost entirely composed of friends and family, my Twitter network is composed of prominent figures, projects, and companies in which I am intensely interested For example, I am an American and I have a passing interest in politics. I follow the President of our Great Union, who is an avid tweeter. I prefer to interpret the news as it happens, through my own unique filter and perspective. Later, I read how others interpreted it. It can be a fun contrast and I prefer to be ahead of the punch, so to speak.
rdtsc 9y ago
Like the GP said, to get people angry by getting them to argue publicly using 140 character sarcastic quips (though limit has increased recently). The angrier they get the more they post, the more they post, the angrier others get, and so on. Therefore lots of engagement and activity. With bots around, and some probably with better AI, it is much easier to "engage" a lot more people on a lot more topics at the same time. And it is interesting to watch because people get into arguments trying to convince each other seemingly but in 140 characters it just sounds insulting and terse. Well sometimes it is simply insulting: "Oh you called me a stupid idiot! Of course, that's a great point. I will step back and ponder an alternative approach to this problem"
duxup 9y ago
To watch everyone mugging for the camera?
sincerely 9y ago
at some level it's similar to instagram/snapchat stories where you can get brief updates from people you know in other cases entire subcultures that used to exist on forums have mainly moved to twitter, like the fighting game community or somethingawful-style humor then a lot of people like to use it to follow celebrities, musicians or industry leaders
- zeth___ 9y ago
  Begging the question: what's the point of instagram and snapchat. Explain this as though I'm a luddite who thinks command line email is better than bbs, irc, and everything else.
  - jshevek 9y ago
    I don't see how that is "begging the question", which means "to assume the truth of the conclusion of an argument in the premises in order for the conclusion to follow."
    - auxbuss 9y ago
      "begging the question" is also commonly used to mean: to raise a point for debate.
  - RandallBrown 9y ago
    The point of them is like any social interaction. To be entertained and connect with people. I mostly only follow my friends on social media, but I can understand the appeal of seeing in to the lives of your favorite celebrities.
yorby 9y ago
presidential communications?
ImSkeptical 9y ago
I think of it as like a magazine. I follow many people I think are interesting and news companies I like. Usually they are tweeting links to articles or interviews I'm interested.
tonyarkles 9y ago
You know, the best metaphor I've heard, and how I've started treating it ever since: Twitter is like a cocktail party that you can enter and leave any time of the day, for as long or as short as you'd like. You might participate in some interesting conversations, you might learn about something new, and then when you're done you can leave. The thing you don't want to do is try to keep up with every tweet. Just follow a bunch of people you find interesting, and once in a while pop in and see what people are talking about.
TangoTrotFox 9y ago
Its size has attracted a number of companies or 'significant' individuals that provide regular updates on activities exclusively through this platform. For instance SpaceX, Elon Musk, NASA, etc have chosen to use Twitter as a primary PR platform. The reason these companies use it as a PR platform is obvious - there's a lot of users. I can't even fathom why it has lots of users though, at least not without mocking the state of society today.
bad_user 9y ago
Twitter is the only social network that I tolerate. And all the people in the software industry that I want to follow are on it.
rtpg 9y ago
for a lot of people its a low-effort blog. So I follow some friends who tweet a bit about their life and fun stuff. Artists also use it as a low-effort gallery/WIP blog. Fun to look at stuff in that scenario as well.
Angostura 9y ago
It can have many uses. It's very handy as a customer support/news mechanism

Honest question: what's the point of twitter?

simplify 9y ago

It's like an RSS reader but for people & products. At least that's how I use it.

cookiecaper 9y ago
Most consumption-oriented social media is "like an RSS reader". HN is a news aggregator with a forum bolted onto the bottom of the stories. What is Facebook? It's an RSS feed of your friends and family's lives. Facebook has replaced Blogger et al, which primarily syndicated through actual RSS, because it was an accessible, simple way to a) create a feed and b) allow publishers to retain some control over their content (by e.g. blocking an undesirable consumer). You had to have some technical competency to set up a blog and an RSS reader, and all Facebook did was fix that and bring the power of syndication to the RSS-incapable masses. As far as I'm concerned, Twitter's value proposition is that it's supposed to be a continuous, temporary real-time vein on whatever is happening at that moment. It doesn't really do a good job of that filling that niche IMO. The only time I've had an impulse to use Twitter is during something like a live news event, and these days I think something like Snapchat does this better (though they're both infuriatingly difficult to access and navigate, decimating their practical utility). In practice Twitter has regressed to the lowest common denominator of "microblogging". The thing that continues to give it power is its interactivity. Because the messages are so short and feel so quick, Twitter ensures that people will see our message, react, and that hits our feedback loops ASAP, demanding follow-on after follow-on. One interpretation of today's Twitter is that it's just the unwashed masses clamoring for a fleeting glimpse of attention from someone they admire. This corresponds with Twitter's early adoption as a celebrity messaging platform for actors (iirc Ashton Kutcher was the first Twitter user to get 1M followers). The only time Twitter's current incarnation is useful is when it allows the everyman to get a message to someone else who would be guarded, e.g., common citizens potentially inciting a credible presidential campaign as in the infamous Russ_Steinberg tweet [0] . It's depressing to think that so much behavior hinges on this rabid attention-vying, but it's also impossible to deny the power when some otherwise-inaccessible influence is established. I assume this is why people continue to use it, despite the fact that 99% of tweets drop into the void. [0] http://archive.is/Imikq http://archive.is/Imikq
- simplify 9y ago
  I use twitter to follow interesting programming people and tech. It works well. Sorry if that doesn't fit your depressing view of twitter.
- bad_user 9y ago
  > HN is a news aggregator I cannot filter HN's feed to only get content from the people I want to follow. And don't tell me about shitty apps. Therefore it does not qualify as an RSS reader.

jsemrau 9y ago

I tried to make Twitter work for me by only following people I am genuinely interested in. (Founders, CEO's, etc) but even after that I am not engaged.

duxup 9y ago
Same, my feed was still filled with inane posts no matter how much I tried to mess with it. I just gave up.
- VectorLock 9y ago
  Embrace the banality.
  - duxup 9y ago
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd2OmVTKkbY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd2OmVTKkbY

zrb05293 9y ago

I enjoyed the social aspect of it. Learning from new people. I use Manton Reece’s service Micro.Blog now and love it.

Donzo 9y ago

Twitter is great for following popular figures and companies. Users can receive news briefs directly from these sources. Often I will read internet journalism about tweets I read a day after I read them on Twitter. Being on Twitter is like being at an on-call press conference with all of your subjects of interest 24 hours a day. It's actually pretty bad ass. It's not all heavy with prose. It's heavy with meaning. Unlike my Facebook network, which is almost entirely composed of friends and family, my Twitter network is composed of prominent figures, projects, and companies in which I am intensely interested For example, I am an American and I have a passing interest in politics. I follow the President of our Great Union, who is an avid tweeter. I prefer to interpret the news as it happens, through my own unique filter and perspective. Later, I read how others interpreted it. It can be a fun contrast and I prefer to be ahead of the punch, so to speak.

rdtsc 9y ago

Like the GP said, to get people angry by getting them to argue publicly using 140 character sarcastic quips (though limit has increased recently). The angrier they get the more they post, the more they post, the angrier others get, and so on. Therefore lots of engagement and activity. With bots around, and some probably with better AI, it is much easier to "engage" a lot more people on a lot more topics at the same time. And it is interesting to watch because people get into arguments trying to convince each other seemingly but in 140 characters it just sounds insulting and terse. Well sometimes it is simply insulting: "Oh you called me a stupid idiot! Of course, that's a great point. I will step back and ponder an alternative approach to this problem"

duxup 9y ago

To watch everyone mugging for the camera?

sincerely 9y ago

at some level it's similar to instagram/snapchat stories where you can get brief updates from people you know in other cases entire subcultures that used to exist on forums have mainly moved to twitter, like the fighting game community or somethingawful-style humor then a lot of people like to use it to follow celebrities, musicians or industry leaders

zeth___ 9y ago
Begging the question: what's the point of instagram and snapchat. Explain this as though I'm a luddite who thinks command line email is better than bbs, irc, and everything else.
- jshevek 9y ago
  I don't see how that is "begging the question", which means "to assume the truth of the conclusion of an argument in the premises in order for the conclusion to follow."
  - auxbuss 9y ago
    "begging the question" is also commonly used to mean: to raise a point for debate.
- RandallBrown 9y ago
  The point of them is like any social interaction. To be entertained and connect with people. I mostly only follow my friends on social media, but I can understand the appeal of seeing in to the lives of your favorite celebrities.

yorby 9y ago

presidential communications?

ImSkeptical 9y ago

I think of it as like a magazine. I follow many people I think are interesting and news companies I like. Usually they are tweeting links to articles or interviews I'm interested.

tonyarkles 9y ago

You know, the best metaphor I've heard, and how I've started treating it ever since: Twitter is like a cocktail party that you can enter and leave any time of the day, for as long or as short as you'd like. You might participate in some interesting conversations, you might learn about something new, and then when you're done you can leave. The thing you don't want to do is try to keep up with every tweet. Just follow a bunch of people you find interesting, and once in a while pop in and see what people are talking about.

TangoTrotFox 9y ago

Its size has attracted a number of companies or 'significant' individuals that provide regular updates on activities exclusively through this platform. For instance SpaceX, Elon Musk, NASA, etc have chosen to use Twitter as a primary PR platform. The reason these companies use it as a PR platform is obvious - there's a lot of users. I can't even fathom why it has lots of users though, at least not without mocking the state of society today.

bad_user 9y ago

Twitter is the only social network that I tolerate. And all the people in the software industry that I want to follow are on it.

rtpg 9y ago

for a lot of people its a low-effort blog. So I follow some friends who tweet a bit about their life and fun stuff. Artists also use it as a low-effort gallery/WIP blog. Fun to look at stuff in that scenario as well.

Angostura 9y ago

It can have many uses. It's very handy as a customer support/news mechanism