Bitter about Twitter?
Aug 13th, 2009 | By Martha Carnahan | Category: Rants
Such a cheerful way to tell me: We're busy!
As a tentative Twitterer, I find myself wondering about the true effectiveness of the 140-character micro-phenomenon. I guess you could say I have a “love-hate” relationship with Twitter.
I adore the research power. I find myself searching Twitter for news, trends and ideas before hopping onto Google. Actually, I can do both at the same time with my favorite little widget, Greasemonkey, a nice Firefox add-on that lists the 5 most recent Tweets on any subject I google (I maintain that the culturally concocted verb of this word is not capitalized!).
I also appreciate the ability to quickly connect with people in my target market, to hear what they are saying in “real time,” or to keep up with the goings on at a conference or other event I want to follow. Love that!
But I’m a writer, for goodness sake, and Twitter limits me to headlines. I’m not fond of all the shrunken links that lead to dark caverns of suspicious value. I tend not to follow them unless the Tweep has given me good reason to. I’m also not fond of the frenzied pace of my Twitter feed. It’s like I’ve gone to a party and am bouncing maniacally around from one chat cluster to another, never fully engaged in a meaningful conversation. How do you folks following thousands keep up?!
But that’s just me. I am cautious, perhaps. Or slow on the uptake. But I’m wide open to experimenting, learning, discovering. And I recently discovered Hootsuite, which is not only fun to say out loud, but allows me to manage my three Twitter accounts more efficiently. And it has a nifty built-in tracking feature.
Thank you for indulging my curmudgeonly view of Twitter. Evgny Morozov’s blog post, Think Again: Twitter, is a great read. Thought-provoking and a charming review of the less shiny side of Twitter. I found myself defending microblogging — there is hope for me, yet!
Tweet on! And follow me if you wish: http://twitter.com/marthacarnahan. I’ll try not to be shallow or grumpy.
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Hi Martha – I’m with you! I am consistently challenged by the 140 character rule but them I’m also challenged by 1000 word essays. I appreciate some of the tools you named. I hope to find some time to work with them and see if they help me manage more efficiently. Sometimes I wonder…it takes so long to understand how they work, I give up and just go straight through the web. We’ll see. Mostly, I find Twitter an adventure that piques my curiosity as I watch and learn how people respond and to what. I gave up trying to follow everyone who follows me or to read everything that comes through and I’ve noticed certain people are active at certain times of the day. Mostly I think this is just an interim something on the way to something much better…what? I don’t know. – Kathy
Yes, I totally agree that Twitter is an interim something on the way to something better. It’s a seed of a great idea, that is not as easy to apply for some of us. I have been formulating more of a strategy about Twitter, which is helping me get a grip.