On the Use(lessness) of Twitter?
March 9th, 2009
Good morning, readers, and happy Monday to you!
I’m curious to know what you, my readers, think about Twitter, and how it might be used. I do have a Twitter account, though I rarely tweet there. To be honest, I’m really not sure what it’s for, and am wondering if you might have any ideas. Do you think that it would be helpful for me in assisting you with philosophical research?
Here’s one view on Twitter, from comedian Ricky Gervais, arguing that it’s somewhat pointless, given blogging and podcasting. Opposing views are here, from Jeff Jarvis and from Jay Rosen.
What do you think, readers? Is Twitter useless? Or does it have its purpose(s)? I’m curious to know…
March 9th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
I don’t twitter yet–I wouldn’t say I even fully adapted to the Facebook lifestyle–but it seems to me that Twitter is useful mainly in public or at public events. For instane to let everyone know how many blocks away from the podium you were at Obama’s Inauguration. (And to see which of your friends were closer, or decided it was too cold for them to stay out.) So in this way Twitter could be considered an enhancement to communal space, being invented in a society noticeably lacking in that. But Gervais makes the good point about how it can also be, ‘I’m taking a bath now.’ The thing is that the technology employed doesn’t recognize the separation of the public and the private sphere, and thus could foster the further bleeding of the one into the other.
Which is to say, that the question is whether Twitter (likewise Facebook) is a political technology or an oeconomic one, in the ancient senses of those terms.
March 9th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
That’s what I’m thinking, too — that Twitter can be used as an enhancement of communal space. Interesting…
March 20th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Twitter is going to be one of the must have marketing tools for 2009. It’s just amazing