I still don't get Twitter

There were another two entries on News.com today about Twitter, and I keep asking, who cares?

If you're not familiar with the service, it's like short attention span blogging that can blast everyone with text messages with whatever you post. You can do RSS or view on the Web as well. But honestly, so what?

I mean, aside from Tyler who posts lots of pictures of himself balancing beverages on his knees and sporting Crocs and shades (;)), who needs this? Not only am I not interested in giving the world a play-by-play every time I take a shit, but I'm even less interested in seeing other people do it. It's like the people who change their status on Facebook ten times a day. I just don't care.

It really strikes me as a short-lived tech fad for narcissists and the people who love them. I'm starting to realize that some people spend way too much time being plugged in (and this from someone who makes his living doing so).

29 Comments

  • "play-by-play every time I take a shit"

    I'm sure Twitter users dont care if you run or pass, they want to know what color it is!

  • I also don't get the idea.. Or the usefulness of the service. But I agree that Scott probably used it most effectively in raising people's awareness of diabetes. As for the rest, I really couldn't care.

  • A friend mine once said (more or less):
    "If you don't get Twitter [or other similiar sites for that matter], then it's not for you". I guess he was right. I don't get it either, but seems like a lot of people do, so it's probably meant for them.

  • My sentiments exactly. I was explaining it to a friend the other day who hadn't heard of it, and the same response.

    I'm thinking like @rams above that it's a generation thing - the problem is I start thinking I'm old for not getting this one (and I'm only 30).

  • I played with Twitter and just don't understand the appeal. I'm not even sure it's generational. I have never heard of Scott whatever nor the diabetes thing. Guess I have too many other things on my plate. Once someone can show me the "true" benefit of Twitter, I'll just ignore it and shrug my shoulders whenever the topic comes up, and say, "So?"

  • I made a twitter account to try and see what the deal was. I never found a single use for it.

  • People don't want to be alone. And they sure as hell don't want to appear to be alone.

    Watch people walking down the street alone. Or eating in a restaurant alone--they keep checking their cell phones to show us all that they are not alone.

    Must be the same twisted energy that powers Twitter.

  • I think maybe your right. I never realized I did that, the check the cell phone thing, until just now. I kind of like being alone sometimes though, maybe that's why Twitter doesn't appeal to me much. I don't ever text either, maybe the two are related.

  • Completely pointless, even if all you're friends / work colleagues are using it... Yet another useless distraction for actually getting on with some work...

    No idea why this has so much press.

  • Hmm. A very short post that is basically a rant. How is this different than a Twitter post?. Oh wait, did I just imply that what you are doing is akin to what people are doing on Twitter? Oops!

  • Its been 2 years since you wrote this, twitter's still around, and I still don't get it! In fact, I found your post by searching "I don't get twitter". I think your post makes two important points about the success of this ugly idea: short-attention spans and self-involved narcissists.

  • Ha ha, Ajita, LMAO! I googled "I don't get Twitter" too and got this!!!!

    Yeah, I get the Facebook, ech. I get myspace, kind of addicting. I have a love/hate relationship with text. But Twitter....dunno. I'm 36....am I too old for this or something?

  • This is strange, exactly the same search in google too. Anyway logged into my 3 month old account for exactly 3 months after creating it. YES, Dont Get it also. And dont think I ever will. and 34 here. Use Facebook every day and just dont see the need also the inclination.

  • Ever hear the story of the Emperor's New Clothes? That, my friend, is Twitter. People all over the world are being laughed at.

  • I found this page googling for "i still don't get twitter." :) Got an account there not long ago to check it out. Posting from time to time, but don't really know why. Who cares what I'm doing on such a detailed basis? What's so great about it. But still, I got one. The power of the media, that is! But I'm still a Facebook virgin, mind you.

  • Wow... I also found this by googling " I Don't get twitter" in fact i didnt spell don't right and Google corrected me "Did you mean I Don't get twitter".

    I don't get twitter. I think we have too many forms of communication. I miss the days when I had to be HOME for someone to reach me. Now I cant get away from people with cell phones and text messages and emails and bla bla bla. I have a feeling twitter is for people who are in school and to whom popularity is still important.

  • chalk another one up to google... I'm trying but I can't really see the appeal.

  • I also found this blog by googling " I Don't get twitter"... and I don't.

  • IM 18yrs old and i don't understand twitter at all

    i googled "I sill don't get twitter" also
    people say its so addictive but yet i don't see how you can get addicted to the updating of your status and the status of someone else *Ugh*

  • Nice! I Don't feel alone now - also googled that I don't get it. 32 here. I tried to like it but can't see the attraction.

  • Heh!

    Another "I don't get Twitter" searcher here..!

    I tried it too - for precisely one Tweet - and "followed" a couple of folks too: and I couldn't make any sense of any of it.

    Now I'm 48, but I've blogged and run forums - and the difference between them and Twitter seems to be the complete apparent randomness of entries on Twitter - one meaningless soundbite after another with no cohesion or sense of "dialogue".

    I do find it funny that the folks who run Twitter need a (Google) blog to provide communications of any substance!

    http://blog.twitter.com/

  • Another google searcher (I guess the only people landing here are the ones who "don't get twitter"), but really...I don't get twitter!! I get myspace, I get facebook, I get a lot of social web sites, but not twitter. It looks like I'm not alone.

  • Someone explain it... -.-

    what's the fundamental piece, the missing part of the human psyche that (apparently) so many people (but us) share?

  • Yup, did the I don't get search. I'm looking for a way to get rid of my cell phone, so Twitter is not for me. But usually I can relate to why it might be attractive--or addictive--to others. Not with Twitter. I read people's tweet pages and it's all Jibber-jabber. Or Twitter-twatter. And someone somewhere postulated that it's actually more an OVER 30 age group that makes up the bulk of twits, that the younger ones are more about Facebook. Anyway, who cares, it's all a Twitter in a Teapot.

  • Scary thing is, twitter is still growing, even now, years after the posting of this blog, and I STILL don’t get it. Is there something wrong with me? Am I like technologically disabled or something? Should I see a doctor?

  • Another ' I don't get Twitter' searcher here! I created an account more than a year ago, tweeted once and completely forgot about it. Went back on a couple of days ago and discovered that I still don't get it.

  • Yup. "I don't get twitter" searcher. I got a twitter account when it first came out, didn't get it. Logged back in about a week ago after more than a year (maybe two?) still don't get it. It's like a downgraded version of Facebook... Only people post more. It's like taking the best aspects of social networking and throwing them away just so people can blab about random shit they're doing ten times a day.

  • Had to laugh... I also typed "I still don't get Twitter" into Google and found this page. We can't all be wrong...

  • I don't get it either!

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