5 ms·

I really wish twitter didn't exist. The utility I see in it is limited. For example, I don't have an account, but I do view tweets from time to time. The tweets

I really wish twitter didn't exist. The utility I see in it is limited. For example, I don't have an account, but I do view tweets from time to time. The tweets I generally view are related to some real time event I'm interested in (ie news). I find the fact that even then, there is usually an endless stream of mostly banal, vapid responses to be very off putting. Not only do I find the content vastly uninteresting, the way the content on twitter is reported by mainstream media is exhausting. I could really care less about the stream of conscious tweeting of celebrities and politicians. It's not "news worthy" in my estimation. But clearly a lot of people find it useful, I am completely mystified how this could be.

thebigspacefuck 4y ago
All you really need is RSS
aschearer 4y ago
Maybe Twitter just isn't for you, that's fine. Why go so far as to wish it doesn't exist? I don't like football but don't want to take it away from its fans -- even though it consumes so much time, money, and attention. To share another perspective, as a gamedev I'll miss Twitter. I doubt there will ever be as many creative people sharing their works in one place again. Things will get siloed and harder to find. Today, it's pretty cool to sign in and see amazing, inspiring work-in-progress. Reddit doesn't come close in my experience.
- marktangotango 4y ago
  > Why go so far as to wish it doesn't exist? Because it pollutes other more "reliable" sources of information.
bombcar 4y ago
> But clearly a lot of people find it useful, I am completely mystified how this could be. Because it's internet boredom distilled into its purest form. And it's popular with journalists because now they don't even have to leave their house to ask the "man on the street" questions, they can just read twitter and regurgitate what they saw and be done with it. More and more articles are just Twitter posts reformatted, and once you start noticing it it gets painfully obvious how much there is.
- neon_electro 4y ago
  LinkedIn has also taken this cue and also regurgitates LinkedIn posts on its trending topics equivalent. I like the topics, I don't think the sourcing on the "hot takes from the LinkedIn crowd" works very well but I guess it gets the clicks.
cgh 4y ago
I follow scientists, mathematicians, authors, comic creators, comedians and so forth. I stay away from politics for the most part (I'm not American so they mostly don't apply to me anyway). I do follow some military analysts re Ukraine. Today, for example, the physicist Sabine Hossenfelder posted a series of tweets criticising this article: https://phys.org/news/2022-10-bell-theorem-quantum-genuinely-tripartite.html https://phys.org/news/2022-10-bell-theorem-quantum-genuinely... It was interesting to read and I'm not sure how I'd have seen her thoughts otherwise, unless she makes one of her YouTube videos about it. I'm not trying to say Twitter is the greatest or even that you should join, just that Twitter has a lot of interesting people posting stuff that has nothing to do with politics or celebrity culture and some of us find it valuable.
- legitster 4y ago
  My friend was in a doctoral program and everyone in it spent ALL DAY on Twitter. It almost became a coordination platform for them, and I get the distinct impression that the field largely homologized from it. So I guess it's kind of neat in one regard, but I think people might underrate how powerfully it rounds away distinct viewpoints or novel findings.
legitster 4y ago
It's very frustrating too how it feels like it has become a black hole for journalists. Instead of actually doing reporting, it seems most spend all day on Twitter and just regurgitate the same few talking points as everyone else.
ljosifov 4y ago
I find Twitter good. Many interesting people and ideas, that I'd never would've come upon on my own probably. I find the short message format forces people to really distill their idea. The SNR on my TL seems fairly high imho. It looks like I'm using it exactly the opposite of your "real time event" mode. I follow people that are not journalists and don't comment on people nor events. Strictly ideas. There are other media much better suited to covering people and events and in real-time. Not having an account - don't see how that can work. In incognito - which I presume is similar to me not having an account - I get to see only a single page with few messages, nothing more. And ofc not possible to follow accounts and thus shape the TL. I never subscribe to trends, themes, areas of interest and similar devices used by Twitter to guess what tweets I'd like to see. Twitter is hopeless there (as is the rest of social media). Just "show me what the account I selected to follow posted" is plenty good. I can't divine why Twitter does not do that only, why the extra complications wrt what messages I see on my TL. It's not like it can't show me enough adverts while showing only messages from accounts I follow. Aside: I'm mystified how one goes from "don't like it" to "should not exist". Why, what's wrong with "live and let live"?

thebigspacefuck 4y ago

All you really need is RSS

aschearer 4y ago

Maybe Twitter just isn't for you, that's fine. Why go so far as to wish it doesn't exist? I don't like football but don't want to take it away from its fans -- even though it consumes so much time, money, and attention. To share another perspective, as a gamedev I'll miss Twitter. I doubt there will ever be as many creative people sharing their works in one place again. Things will get siloed and harder to find. Today, it's pretty cool to sign in and see amazing, inspiring work-in-progress. Reddit doesn't come close in my experience.

marktangotango 4y ago
> Why go so far as to wish it doesn't exist? Because it pollutes other more "reliable" sources of information.

bombcar 4y ago

> But clearly a lot of people find it useful, I am completely mystified how this could be. Because it's internet boredom distilled into its purest form. And it's popular with journalists because now they don't even have to leave their house to ask the "man on the street" questions, they can just read twitter and regurgitate what they saw and be done with it. More and more articles are just Twitter posts reformatted, and once you start noticing it it gets painfully obvious how much there is.

neon_electro 4y ago
LinkedIn has also taken this cue and also regurgitates LinkedIn posts on its trending topics equivalent. I like the topics, I don't think the sourcing on the "hot takes from the LinkedIn crowd" works very well but I guess it gets the clicks.

cgh 4y ago

I follow scientists, mathematicians, authors, comic creators, comedians and so forth. I stay away from politics for the most part (I'm not American so they mostly don't apply to me anyway). I do follow some military analysts re Ukraine. Today, for example, the physicist Sabine Hossenfelder posted a series of tweets criticising this article: https://phys.org/news/2022-10-bell-theorem-quantum-genuinely-tripartite.html https://phys.org/news/2022-10-bell-theorem-quantum-genuinely... It was interesting to read and I'm not sure how I'd have seen her thoughts otherwise, unless she makes one of her YouTube videos about it. I'm not trying to say Twitter is the greatest or even that you should join, just that Twitter has a lot of interesting people posting stuff that has nothing to do with politics or celebrity culture and some of us find it valuable.

legitster 4y ago
My friend was in a doctoral program and everyone in it spent ALL DAY on Twitter. It almost became a coordination platform for them, and I get the distinct impression that the field largely homologized from it. So I guess it's kind of neat in one regard, but I think people might underrate how powerfully it rounds away distinct viewpoints or novel findings.

legitster 4y ago

It's very frustrating too how it feels like it has become a black hole for journalists. Instead of actually doing reporting, it seems most spend all day on Twitter and just regurgitate the same few talking points as everyone else.

ljosifov 4y ago

I find Twitter good. Many interesting people and ideas, that I'd never would've come upon on my own probably. I find the short message format forces people to really distill their idea. The SNR on my TL seems fairly high imho. It looks like I'm using it exactly the opposite of your "real time event" mode. I follow people that are not journalists and don't comment on people nor events. Strictly ideas. There are other media much better suited to covering people and events and in real-time. Not having an account - don't see how that can work. In incognito - which I presume is similar to me not having an account - I get to see only a single page with few messages, nothing more. And ofc not possible to follow accounts and thus shape the TL. I never subscribe to trends, themes, areas of interest and similar devices used by Twitter to guess what tweets I'd like to see. Twitter is hopeless there (as is the rest of social media). Just "show me what the account I selected to follow posted" is plenty good. I can't divine why Twitter does not do that only, why the extra complications wrt what messages I see on my TL. It's not like it can't show me enough adverts while showing only messages from accounts I follow. Aside: I'm mystified how one goes from "don't like it" to "should not exist". Why, what's wrong with "live and let live"?