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The self-importance of the IT industry astonishes me sometimes. Twitter is awesome, but it's only a couple of years old, has just started taking it's first baby

by shib71 17y ago

The self-importance of the IT industry astonishes me sometimes. Twitter is awesome, but it's only a couple of years old, has just started taking it's first baby steps into the public consciousness, and is built on minuscule short-lived sound bites. How can anyone be seriously incredulous that a busy man (like a presidential candidate) has not gotten around to using it?

silencio 17y ago
It's one thing if Obama just didn't get around to using it - that I'm sure we all can understand. It's the idea that "he" was using Twitter, among other services (like an iPhone app..), as a tool to promote his presidential campaign very heavily towards certain demographics. Something that appealed to a lot of younger voters who believed then that he seemed to be very in-touch with that group as a result. Not to mention it wasn't the very idea of having a Twitter account for Obama (or any other politician) that was interesting, but that it appeared to be Obama himself writing the tweets, not someone else on his team.
- neilc 17y ago
  I don't think it's any different than the Twitter accounts of countless other politicians and public figures, many/most of which are actually ghost-written (e.g. http://twitter.com/SENJohnMcCain http://twitter.com/SENJohnMcCain , which uses the first person). Anyone who thought that Obama was personally authoring his Twitter feed is a little naive, IMHO.
  - silencio 17y ago
    It is naïve, but it wasn't an uncommon belief that Obama might have personally authored at least a few of those tweets, and certainly nobody stopped anyone from believing that. Not that I care either way at this point what he does or has done with that Twitter account. I know plenty of other politicians and public figures have ghostwritten Twitter accounts. I was rather bummed to find out that the Mayor of LA had one ghostwritten while his office initially acted like he was either writing them himself or giving direct approval to tweets not written by him (and even a little drama over that whole incident).
fauigerzigerk 17y ago
That's right, miniscule short-lived sound bites for self important people who love to be "followed" by others. Even though this sounds like it could have been invented by politicians I feel some relief that Obama does not waste his time on tweeting things like "Humbled".

by shib71 17y ago

silencio 17y ago

It's one thing if Obama just didn't get around to using it - that I'm sure we all can understand. It's the idea that "he" was using Twitter, among other services (like an iPhone app..), as a tool to promote his presidential campaign very heavily towards certain demographics. Something that appealed to a lot of younger voters who believed then that he seemed to be very in-touch with that group as a result. Not to mention it wasn't the very idea of having a Twitter account for Obama (or any other politician) that was interesting, but that it appeared to be Obama himself writing the tweets, not someone else on his team.

neilc 17y ago
I don't think it's any different than the Twitter accounts of countless other politicians and public figures, many/most of which are actually ghost-written (e.g. http://twitter.com/SENJohnMcCain http://twitter.com/SENJohnMcCain , which uses the first person). Anyone who thought that Obama was personally authoring his Twitter feed is a little naive, IMHO.
- silencio 17y ago
  It is naïve, but it wasn't an uncommon belief that Obama might have personally authored at least a few of those tweets, and certainly nobody stopped anyone from believing that. Not that I care either way at this point what he does or has done with that Twitter account. I know plenty of other politicians and public figures have ghostwritten Twitter accounts. I was rather bummed to find out that the Mayor of LA had one ghostwritten while his office initially acted like he was either writing them himself or giving direct approval to tweets not written by him (and even a little drama over that whole incident).

fauigerzigerk 17y ago

That's right, miniscule short-lived sound bites for self important people who love to be "followed" by others. Even though this sounds like it could have been invented by politicians I feel some relief that Obama does not waste his time on tweeting things like "Humbled".