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> twitter's time and place has passed. That would sort of imply that there is an alternative. Where else do you get near-real-time commentary from ongoing popu

> twitter's time and place has passed. That would sort of imply that there is an alternative. Where else do you get near-real-time commentary from ongoing popular events, as well as bite-sized (potentially insightful) ramblings on assorted topics of your interest that are not curated by corporate news sources and that you previously might never have known existed?

iqanq 5y ago
Why would I want that?
- ejb999 5y ago
  exactly - somehow we managed to survive a long time without needing to know 'instantly' that 'something' is happening 'someplace'. Most of the instant reports are just plain lies anyway - watch any of big news channels when there is some breaking news - they literally just sit in front of the camera and make things up to fill the airtime with useless speculation, devoid of any real facts or news - I can tune in 6-12-24-48 hours later and read what really happened if I want to. Same thing happens on twitter - some big event happens and ten's of thousands of people start commenting on their version of 'the facts'. Take a 2-3 month break from twitter - see if your life is any worse of for not constantly being 'in the loop'.
  - TuringTest 5y ago
    > exactly - somehow we managed to survive a long time without needing to know 'instantly' that 'something' is happening 'someplace'. We survived millions of years without having agriculture or human-made shelter, and yet at some point we built a civilization. That's not an argument for not doing things. > Take a 2-3 month break from twitter - see if your life is any worse of for not constantly being 'in the loop'. Who says I am constantly 'in the loop'? I do check Twitter when I want to, because there are subjects where I want to get the influx of raw ideas before they are processed and packaged by the powers that be. (It's also useful to track how those ideas are later processed and packaged in real time, something that you could never get by consuming mass media alone). If you are addicted to it and can't spend one weekend without it that's your problem, don't project it on others.
    - ejb999 5y ago
      because invention of agriculture or human-made shelter and 'just like' reading tweets online....
      - TuringTest 5y ago
        It's just like representing debt with marks scribbled on a totem instead of a generic vague feeling of owing you something, or like movable types on the printing press. We could do without those, they were novelties at their time, but they happened to change society at a fundamental level when their substained use changed relationships built around the new tech.
ihateolives 5y ago
> Where else do you get near-real-time commentary from ongoing popular events Do you really need it? I thought I did, turns out I don't. What happens when you're not live all the time?
- TuringTest 5y ago
  There's a difference between "doing it all the time" and "using it when I want to have it". We could be reading press newspapers once a day, and yet we check online webpages and forums. Do we really need it? Or we do it because it is an improvement as long as we use it wisely?
sp332 5y ago
Not that many people use Twitter. It has 400 million monthly active users, about the same amount as MSN had in 2004. It's just not that indispensable for most people.

iqanq 5y ago

Why would I want that?

ejb999 5y ago
exactly - somehow we managed to survive a long time without needing to know 'instantly' that 'something' is happening 'someplace'. Most of the instant reports are just plain lies anyway - watch any of big news channels when there is some breaking news - they literally just sit in front of the camera and make things up to fill the airtime with useless speculation, devoid of any real facts or news - I can tune in 6-12-24-48 hours later and read what really happened if I want to. Same thing happens on twitter - some big event happens and ten's of thousands of people start commenting on their version of 'the facts'. Take a 2-3 month break from twitter - see if your life is any worse of for not constantly being 'in the loop'.
- TuringTest 5y ago
  > exactly - somehow we managed to survive a long time without needing to know 'instantly' that 'something' is happening 'someplace'. We survived millions of years without having agriculture or human-made shelter, and yet at some point we built a civilization. That's not an argument for not doing things. > Take a 2-3 month break from twitter - see if your life is any worse of for not constantly being 'in the loop'. Who says I am constantly 'in the loop'? I do check Twitter when I want to, because there are subjects where I want to get the influx of raw ideas before they are processed and packaged by the powers that be. (It's also useful to track how those ideas are later processed and packaged in real time, something that you could never get by consuming mass media alone). If you are addicted to it and can't spend one weekend without it that's your problem, don't project it on others.
  - ejb999 5y ago
    because invention of agriculture or human-made shelter and 'just like' reading tweets online....
    - TuringTest 5y ago
      It's just like representing debt with marks scribbled on a totem instead of a generic vague feeling of owing you something, or like movable types on the printing press. We could do without those, they were novelties at their time, but they happened to change society at a fundamental level when their substained use changed relationships built around the new tech.

ihateolives 5y ago

> Where else do you get near-real-time commentary from ongoing popular events Do you really need it? I thought I did, turns out I don't. What happens when you're not live all the time?

TuringTest 5y ago
There's a difference between "doing it all the time" and "using it when I want to have it". We could be reading press newspapers once a day, and yet we check online webpages and forums. Do we really need it? Or we do it because it is an improvement as long as we use it wisely?

sp332 5y ago

Not that many people use Twitter. It has 400 million monthly active users, about the same amount as MSN had in 2004. It's just not that indispensable for most people.