3 ms·

How is Twitter a source of information rather than gossip, opinion, and outright information warfare conducted by both sides?

CharlesW 6y ago
> How is Twitter a source of information rather than gossip, opinion, and outright information warfare conducted by both sides? Your Twitter experience will be wildly different depending on who you follow. If you do this with some care, and also don't take everything at 100% face value, you too can have a low-misinformation Twitter experience.
- sJ646U9k6c6gME9 6y ago
  I quit Twitter in 2015 when my supposedly level-headed friends (most of whom are fellow software engineers) lost their minds and switched to posting only about politics. Twitter immediately lost all utility. To me, politics has little to do with good governance, and is thus a kind of misinformation or spam. I opted right out of all that. I’ve been much happier ever since.
  - CharlesW 6y ago
    I think you're smart for cutting that toxicity out of your life. I quit Facebook a couple years ago I've never regretted it. Luckily Twitter wasn't a "friends" platform for me, and so far I'm doing okay using Lists and being generous with blocking.
    - Jtsummers 6y ago
      I didn't quit FB, but I stopped looking at it. I maintained it strictly to organize group events which it was very useful for. The feed, however, has become garbage (as demonstrated again when I perused it this morning for grins).
- thisisbrians 6y ago
  This, 100%. Choose your follows very carefully and you will be rewarded with a goldmine.
throwaway2245 6y ago
I often see news I am interested on Twitter hours before it makes the actual news. And some content that I want to know that never makes the news. I'm sorry to tell you that the traditional media isn't any better for gossip, opinion and information warfare. You gotta be able to analyse your sources in any case.
- sJ646U9k6c6gME9 6y ago
  I prefer not to follow news at all. 99.999% of it never has anything to do with me. If I can’t hear it from the front porch of my house, I don’t care to know about it.

CharlesW 6y ago

> How is Twitter a source of information rather than gossip, opinion, and outright information warfare conducted by both sides? Your Twitter experience will be wildly different depending on who you follow. If you do this with some care, and also don't take everything at 100% face value, you too can have a low-misinformation Twitter experience.

sJ646U9k6c6gME9 6y ago
I quit Twitter in 2015 when my supposedly level-headed friends (most of whom are fellow software engineers) lost their minds and switched to posting only about politics. Twitter immediately lost all utility. To me, politics has little to do with good governance, and is thus a kind of misinformation or spam. I opted right out of all that. I’ve been much happier ever since.
- CharlesW 6y ago
  I think you're smart for cutting that toxicity out of your life. I quit Facebook a couple years ago I've never regretted it. Luckily Twitter wasn't a "friends" platform for me, and so far I'm doing okay using Lists and being generous with blocking.
  - Jtsummers 6y ago
    I didn't quit FB, but I stopped looking at it. I maintained it strictly to organize group events which it was very useful for. The feed, however, has become garbage (as demonstrated again when I perused it this morning for grins).
thisisbrians 6y ago
This, 100%. Choose your follows very carefully and you will be rewarded with a goldmine.

throwaway2245 6y ago

I often see news I am interested on Twitter hours before it makes the actual news. And some content that I want to know that never makes the news. I'm sorry to tell you that the traditional media isn't any better for gossip, opinion and information warfare. You gotta be able to analyse your sources in any case.

sJ646U9k6c6gME9 6y ago
I prefer not to follow news at all. 99.999% of it never has anything to do with me. If I can’t hear it from the front porch of my house, I don’t care to know about it.