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Oh please. The rest of the world doesn’t take Twitter as seriously as Americans do. And truth be told, Americans shouldn’t take it seriously either. The platfo

Oh please. The rest of the world doesn’t take Twitter as seriously as Americans do. And truth be told, Americans shouldn’t take it seriously either. The platform derives power from the audience. Stop giving it your power.

mattoxic 6y ago
So true. it's a toilet. A few months back I told myself no more, I resigned my account and haven't missed it at all. massive time sink, and utterly pointless. It isn't a conversation, it's yelling at a brick wall, then yelling louder when you don't get an answer.
- jansan 6y ago
  Same here. I realized that using Twitter was just a great waste of time. Deleted my account, became more productive and happier.
  - blaser-waffle 6y ago
    Same with all social media, save for HN and light reddit use. In the process of de-googling my life as well.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
cjohansson 6y ago
This is true I think. Twitter is mostly a US thing
- fredoliveira 6y ago
  Consider your biases. 80% of twitter users are outside the US [0], [1]. [0]: https://www.statista.com/statistics/274565/monthly-active-international-twitter-users/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/274565/monthly-active-in... [1]: https://www.omnicoreagency.com/twitter-statistics/ https://www.omnicoreagency.com/twitter-statistics/
  - wonderlg 6y ago
    True, 60% of those are Russian bots. /s
  - Juliate 6y ago
    Speaking of biases, English-speaking twitter is a powervul vector bringing US biases (whatever they are) through the world. I have to regularly stop and check that "ha, yes, that's a very USA-centric take on things and does not represent reality outside of it".
    - DonHopkins 6y ago
      Just like Hollywood.
  - ivanche 6y ago
    Around 96% of world population is outside the US. Consider your biases indeed.
    - ubercow13 6y ago
      What about the internet-using population? Supposedly only 60% of the world uses the internet whereas almost all of the US population does https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-populatio...
      - magnio 6y ago
        250 million non-US users to 4.3 billion Internet users (excluding the US) is about 5.8%. Compared that to 23% in the US. Twitter is very US-centric.
        viklove 6y ago
        If Twitter is 20% American users, how can that be considered "US-centric?" The vast majority of Twitter's users are not in the US...
cbzoiav 6y ago
Financial markets do. Where acting faster than your competition is essential you don't have a lot of choice. As for the blackmail and war starting you probably couldn't do much with public tweets (nobody is going to go to war over a tweet without fact checking it) but access to private messages is an entirely different story.
- reactchain 6y ago
  > As for the blackmail and war starting you probably couldn't do much with public tweets Depends how tense the situation already was. A well-timed tweet could be enough to tip things over the edge if both sides were already on the edge, and I don't think we're too far away from that.
  - bhaak 6y ago
    Also remember that the soldiers themselves have twitter. Those tweets can make them more itchy than they already are in a tense situation and nervous persons make more mistakes.
- 082349872349872 6y ago
  The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ems_Dispatch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ems_Dispatch started the Franco-Prussian war. Bismarck released his carefully worded readout in the evening of Thursday, 14 July 1870. Assuming the french were "making the bridge" for Bastille Day, they would have had one working day (Monday, 18 July 1870) to fact check, but I don't know if they took even that, because according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_the_Franco-Prussian_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_the_Franco-Prussian_... , on 19 July 1870 "Le Sourd, the French Chargé d'Affaires, delivered Napoleon [III]'s declaration of war at the Foreign Office" in Berlin. https://scholar.dominican.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1132&context=books https://scholar.dominican.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=11... suggests the french were already mobilising on 14 July itself, and that while telegraph use may technically have been possible, US diplomats were still communicating by snail mail with State. That emotion won over fact checking is supported by Ch. I p.3 > Washburne dismissed the accuracy of the Ems telegram because it had been challenged by King Wilhelm. "There is no truth in the reports concerning the indignity which the King of the North German Confederation offered to Benedetti, the Envoy of France." Washburne based this statement on a published denial by the King which he had read in Cologne while returning to Paris. Though he questioned the veracity of the Ems telegram, Washburne still credited it with arousing the French Chamber of Deputies to vote for war. (the war vote was Friday, 15 July. It might be interesting to see if any french papers had carried Wilhelm's version of events.)
peroporque 6y ago
German journalists do. Sadly.
- dgellow 6y ago
  French journalists too. It would be interesting to know what percentage of journalists/new people, are active on Twitter. I would expect them to be over represented given the amount of reports based or citing tweets, but I don’t know.
  - scottlocklin 6y ago
    Frankly the biggest problem with twitter is journalists taking it seriously and abjuring their actual jobs of explaining what's going on in the world in favor of low effort no-information bullshit like "person X said Y on twitter." Literally nobody else with a life and a day job does. It's the comments section they removed from their websites. The "muh stock market" argument is stupid; there are punters who take it seriously, and obviously, it's a great vola signal for automated traders. So what? Rumors were propagated before twitter and will be propagated long after it goes the way of other useless companies like pets dot com.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

mattoxic 6y ago

So true. it's a toilet. A few months back I told myself no more, I resigned my account and haven't missed it at all. massive time sink, and utterly pointless. It isn't a conversation, it's yelling at a brick wall, then yelling louder when you don't get an answer.

jansan 6y ago
Same here. I realized that using Twitter was just a great waste of time. Deleted my account, became more productive and happier.
- blaser-waffle 6y ago
  Same with all social media, save for HN and light reddit use. In the process of de-googling my life as well.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

cjohansson 6y ago

This is true I think. Twitter is mostly a US thing

fredoliveira 6y ago
Consider your biases. 80% of twitter users are outside the US [0], [1]. [0]: https://www.statista.com/statistics/274565/monthly-active-international-twitter-users/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/274565/monthly-active-in... [1]: https://www.omnicoreagency.com/twitter-statistics/ https://www.omnicoreagency.com/twitter-statistics/
- wonderlg 6y ago
  True, 60% of those are Russian bots. /s
- Juliate 6y ago
  Speaking of biases, English-speaking twitter is a powervul vector bringing US biases (whatever they are) through the world. I have to regularly stop and check that "ha, yes, that's a very USA-centric take on things and does not represent reality outside of it".
  - DonHopkins 6y ago
    Just like Hollywood.
- ivanche 6y ago
  Around 96% of world population is outside the US. Consider your biases indeed.
  - ubercow13 6y ago
    What about the internet-using population? Supposedly only 60% of the world uses the internet whereas almost all of the US population does https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-populatio...
    - magnio 6y ago
      250 million non-US users to 4.3 billion Internet users (excluding the US) is about 5.8%. Compared that to 23% in the US. Twitter is very US-centric.
      - viklove 6y ago
        If Twitter is 20% American users, how can that be considered "US-centric?" The vast majority of Twitter's users are not in the US...

cbzoiav 6y ago

Financial markets do. Where acting faster than your competition is essential you don't have a lot of choice. As for the blackmail and war starting you probably couldn't do much with public tweets (nobody is going to go to war over a tweet without fact checking it) but access to private messages is an entirely different story.

reactchain 6y ago
> As for the blackmail and war starting you probably couldn't do much with public tweets Depends how tense the situation already was. A well-timed tweet could be enough to tip things over the edge if both sides were already on the edge, and I don't think we're too far away from that.
- bhaak 6y ago
  Also remember that the soldiers themselves have twitter. Those tweets can make them more itchy than they already are in a tense situation and nervous persons make more mistakes.
082349872349872 6y ago
The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ems_Dispatch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ems_Dispatch started the Franco-Prussian war. Bismarck released his carefully worded readout in the evening of Thursday, 14 July 1870. Assuming the french were "making the bridge" for Bastille Day, they would have had one working day (Monday, 18 July 1870) to fact check, but I don't know if they took even that, because according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_the_Franco-Prussian_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_the_Franco-Prussian_... , on 19 July 1870 "Le Sourd, the French Chargé d'Affaires, delivered Napoleon [III]'s declaration of war at the Foreign Office" in Berlin. https://scholar.dominican.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1132&context=books https://scholar.dominican.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=11... suggests the french were already mobilising on 14 July itself, and that while telegraph use may technically have been possible, US diplomats were still communicating by snail mail with State. That emotion won over fact checking is supported by Ch. I p.3 > Washburne dismissed the accuracy of the Ems telegram because it had been challenged by King Wilhelm. "There is no truth in the reports concerning the indignity which the King of the North German Confederation offered to Benedetti, the Envoy of France." Washburne based this statement on a published denial by the King which he had read in Cologne while returning to Paris. Though he questioned the veracity of the Ems telegram, Washburne still credited it with arousing the French Chamber of Deputies to vote for war. (the war vote was Friday, 15 July. It might be interesting to see if any french papers had carried Wilhelm's version of events.)

peroporque 6y ago

German journalists do. Sadly.

dgellow 6y ago
French journalists too. It would be interesting to know what percentage of journalists/new people, are active on Twitter. I would expect them to be over represented given the amount of reports based or citing tweets, but I don’t know.
- scottlocklin 6y ago
  Frankly the biggest problem with twitter is journalists taking it seriously and abjuring their actual jobs of explaining what's going on in the world in favor of low effort no-information bullshit like "person X said Y on twitter." Literally nobody else with a life and a day job does. It's the comments section they removed from their websites. The "muh stock market" argument is stupid; there are punters who take it seriously, and obviously, it's a great vola signal for automated traders. So what? Rumors were propagated before twitter and will be propagated long after it goes the way of other useless companies like pets dot com.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]