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I wish we would all collectively agree not to use Twitter or consider it an inappropriate place for such communication. I don't know how Twitter became a seriou

I wish we would all collectively agree not to use Twitter or consider it an inappropriate place for such communication. I don't know how Twitter became a serious enough platform for public figures to post on, but to me it still feels equivalent to posting on your niche video game forum or MySpace. I can't take anything seriously if they post it on Twitter.

softwaredoug 6y ago
I periodically go to twitters homepage, see the idiotic trending tags, and just facepalm at the collective histrionic stupidity Twitter is generating
- whymauri 6y ago
  Aren't the tags personalized? lol
  - warent 6y ago
    Why not check before making a comment like this? You can open twitter from a private browser tab in a mobile device and instantly see that there are global trending tags. https://mobile.twitter.com/explore https://mobile.twitter.com/explore
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
- aphextron 6y ago
  >"I periodically go to twitters homepage, see the idiotic trending tags, and just facepalm at the collective histrionic stupidity Twitter is generating" It's all in how you use it. I honestly think Twitter is the only decent one out of all the big social media sites. They give you really good filtering capabilities, the ability to hide sponsored posts, and the content is actually accessible via the web, not locked within their walled garden a la Facebook. Twitter is great if you curate the people you follow and stick to technical and scientific topics. Avoiding politics is the key; 140 characters is simply not the platform to have those kind of discussions, which leads to the toxicity.
  - j_4 6y ago
    That's very different from my experience. You can't hide "trends", "who to follow", or "topics", and they make it pretty much impossible to do with simple cosmetic filtering, which I certainly don't believe is accidental. I honestly never felt Facebook coming after my attention, with content I don't want to see, nearly as hard. By the way, the character limit has been doubled to 280 a few years ago.
    - jpindar 6y ago
      I use Tweetdeck, so I don't see any "trends" or "who to follow" or "topics" or anything like that (unless I choose to). https://tweetdeck.twitter.com https://tweetdeck.twitter.com
text70 6y ago
Twitter has always been a refuge of the small minded and the most superficial aspects of our society. Couple that with raging narcissism, dog-whistle politics, racism, and you have a weaponized platform. This is the dark side of the tech. /u The light side is that it allows almost real-time reporting of current events, crowdsorcing, and sentiment feedback to allow for responsible action by people who pay attention.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  Surely Twitter is both, just like every other platform?
  - ryandvm 6y ago
    I'm not sure it is. Twitter is short form by design. Most issues are complex. I would suggest that short form dissertation on complex issues is pointless at best and more often than not simply stokes conflict. Have Twitter (and Facebook) provided valuable information to the world? Sure. Have they also harmed democracies? I think it's fairly obvious they have. Oh shoot, turns out it's a complex issue...
    - Joeri 6y ago
      The quality of conversation on facebook is not higher than twitter, just more verbose. Twitter’s short form is not the cause for its deficiencies, the low threshold for reaching a wide audience is.
  - text70 6y ago
    I like to compare twitter to current modern language prediction models. Instead of seeding the ML model with a sentence and getting an output tree, you are seeding the social consciousness of people and getting an organic output. This is why intention is so important when interacting with new technologies.
- twybbque 6y ago
  Almost real-time reporting and rumor mill. The amount of half truths, lies, doctored / out of context imagery is staggering. Not convinced that having a real-time rumor mill in times of crisis and social discord helps anyone other than cynical political actors.
bzb3 6y ago
Those who feel the way you do, myself included, haven't used Twitter in years
humblebee 6y ago
Serious question: Where else can I find all of these government agencies / representative (Congress) statements? Twitter seems to be how the US government communicates with the people. It seems that Twitter makes it much easier to follow and hear from US representatives.
- izzydata 6y ago
  Perhaps they should make a .gov website for official communication only. The government shouldn't be using Twitter for this purpose.
codegeek 6y ago
I concur but to be honest, that is why Twitter has become valuable. Imagine if peopoe like Trump, Obama or the top 100 celebrities, CEOs stopped using Twitter. Who would then really care ? I have a twitter account but I don't feel the need to tweet personally and frankly, no one would care. So even though people like Trump are technically a nuisance for Twitter, they are also the reason why Twitter has millions of people on it.
kgin 6y ago
I wish we could all agree also. 100% of Twitter’s value is network effects. People are there because other people are there.
unethical_ban 6y ago
I disagree somewhat. Twitter can be useful for following people and orgs you care about. And TBH, the "hot takes" I have sometimes seen on Twitter have changed my opinions about things. And people are using it now, in America, to share videos and communicate about things like they did in Iran 11 years ago. Where Twitter fails to be useful is in * Trusting it too much when you don't already know the source * Looking at the replies to Tweets (IOW, tweet convos are rarely useful) * Hashtags as journalism (#blah is trending!) Bots, trolls, and hate are huge on Twitter, as are whiny people looking for attention. Find the way to use Twitter properly, and it can be a benefit.
downerending 6y ago
I left many years ago, after the realization that it has the property of making people awful (including me).
- pixxel 6y ago
  I left about 6 years ago. I became increasingly frustrated that nobody was talking about real issues, namely politics, and that celebrities weren’t using their vast reach to amplify messages. Twitter was for tweeting what one had for lunch. Well, look at Twitter now. I got what I wanted, and I hate it. I was wrong. I’d happily go back to early Twitter.
ASalazarMX 6y ago
Twitter's trending topics are one of the better propaganda tools ever created. You can steer millions of people to any narrative you want just by getting (or buying) enough retweets. Anyone who produces propaganda likes that.

softwaredoug 6y ago

I periodically go to twitters homepage, see the idiotic trending tags, and just facepalm at the collective histrionic stupidity Twitter is generating

whymauri 6y ago
Aren't the tags personalized? lol
- warent 6y ago
  Why not check before making a comment like this? You can open twitter from a private browser tab in a mobile device and instantly see that there are global trending tags. https://mobile.twitter.com/explore https://mobile.twitter.com/explore
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
aphextron 6y ago
>"I periodically go to twitters homepage, see the idiotic trending tags, and just facepalm at the collective histrionic stupidity Twitter is generating" It's all in how you use it. I honestly think Twitter is the only decent one out of all the big social media sites. They give you really good filtering capabilities, the ability to hide sponsored posts, and the content is actually accessible via the web, not locked within their walled garden a la Facebook. Twitter is great if you curate the people you follow and stick to technical and scientific topics. Avoiding politics is the key; 140 characters is simply not the platform to have those kind of discussions, which leads to the toxicity.
- j_4 6y ago
  That's very different from my experience. You can't hide "trends", "who to follow", or "topics", and they make it pretty much impossible to do with simple cosmetic filtering, which I certainly don't believe is accidental. I honestly never felt Facebook coming after my attention, with content I don't want to see, nearly as hard. By the way, the character limit has been doubled to 280 a few years ago.
  - jpindar 6y ago
    I use Tweetdeck, so I don't see any "trends" or "who to follow" or "topics" or anything like that (unless I choose to). https://tweetdeck.twitter.com https://tweetdeck.twitter.com

text70 6y ago

Twitter has always been a refuge of the small minded and the most superficial aspects of our society. Couple that with raging narcissism, dog-whistle politics, racism, and you have a weaponized platform. This is the dark side of the tech. /u The light side is that it allows almost real-time reporting of current events, crowdsorcing, and sentiment feedback to allow for responsible action by people who pay attention.

saagarjha 6y ago
Surely Twitter is both, just like every other platform?
- ryandvm 6y ago
  I'm not sure it is. Twitter is short form by design. Most issues are complex. I would suggest that short form dissertation on complex issues is pointless at best and more often than not simply stokes conflict. Have Twitter (and Facebook) provided valuable information to the world? Sure. Have they also harmed democracies? I think it's fairly obvious they have. Oh shoot, turns out it's a complex issue...
  - Joeri 6y ago
    The quality of conversation on facebook is not higher than twitter, just more verbose. Twitter’s short form is not the cause for its deficiencies, the low threshold for reaching a wide audience is.
- text70 6y ago
  I like to compare twitter to current modern language prediction models. Instead of seeding the ML model with a sentence and getting an output tree, you are seeding the social consciousness of people and getting an organic output. This is why intention is so important when interacting with new technologies.
twybbque 6y ago
Almost real-time reporting and rumor mill. The amount of half truths, lies, doctored / out of context imagery is staggering. Not convinced that having a real-time rumor mill in times of crisis and social discord helps anyone other than cynical political actors.

bzb3 6y ago

Those who feel the way you do, myself included, haven't used Twitter in years

humblebee 6y ago

Serious question: Where else can I find all of these government agencies / representative (Congress) statements? Twitter seems to be how the US government communicates with the people. It seems that Twitter makes it much easier to follow and hear from US representatives.

izzydata 6y ago
Perhaps they should make a .gov website for official communication only. The government shouldn't be using Twitter for this purpose.

codegeek 6y ago

I concur but to be honest, that is why Twitter has become valuable. Imagine if peopoe like Trump, Obama or the top 100 celebrities, CEOs stopped using Twitter. Who would then really care ? I have a twitter account but I don't feel the need to tweet personally and frankly, no one would care. So even though people like Trump are technically a nuisance for Twitter, they are also the reason why Twitter has millions of people on it.

kgin 6y ago

I wish we could all agree also. 100% of Twitter’s value is network effects. People are there because other people are there.

unethical_ban 6y ago

I disagree somewhat. Twitter can be useful for following people and orgs you care about. And TBH, the "hot takes" I have sometimes seen on Twitter have changed my opinions about things. And people are using it now, in America, to share videos and communicate about things like they did in Iran 11 years ago. Where Twitter fails to be useful is in * Trusting it too much when you don't already know the source * Looking at the replies to Tweets (IOW, tweet convos are rarely useful) * Hashtags as journalism (#blah is trending!) Bots, trolls, and hate are huge on Twitter, as are whiny people looking for attention. Find the way to use Twitter properly, and it can be a benefit.

downerending 6y ago

I left many years ago, after the realization that it has the property of making people awful (including me).

pixxel 6y ago
I left about 6 years ago. I became increasingly frustrated that nobody was talking about real issues, namely politics, and that celebrities weren’t using their vast reach to amplify messages. Twitter was for tweeting what one had for lunch. Well, look at Twitter now. I got what I wanted, and I hate it. I was wrong. I’d happily go back to early Twitter.

ASalazarMX 6y ago

Twitter's trending topics are one of the better propaganda tools ever created. You can steer millions of people to any narrative you want just by getting (or buying) enough retweets. Anyone who produces propaganda likes that.