As one friend observed, “If the people in my life need to know what is happening in my life every 20 seconds, there is something very wrong, either with them, or with me.”
Facebook gives you a fighting chance. If you’re not the brightest bulb, not the sharpest tack, you can still hang out and find your posse. Addictive as it is (Facecrack, Crackbook), one can skip a daily dose and still pick up pretty much where one left off. Yes, Andrea is still in a relationship, heart heart. Yes, Gayle’s pictures from her trip are online now. No, you have not been Superpoked by Etienne, but Tim wants you to join his mob.
Brain. Can. Process. Yes.
Twitter is Facebook as played by Lindsay Lohan on Red Bull minus her daily Ritalin. It’s Racebook, run by people who are tethered to their Blackberrys and iPhones, pithy, clever people who always have a good line. I watch them in amazement. They make bathroom stops hilarious. They multitask with a vengeance. Sparks fly out of my computer when I log into Twitter.
I tweeted, briefly. I was a twit at tweeting. #? @? Er???
I do not have the passion it takes to be a tweeting, blogging, Facebegging mother of two. Something had to give. My occupation, my breasts and my thighs have already given up the ghost (RIP, darlings) and Twitter was the next logical thing to go.
I can be funny. I can’t be funny THAT FAST AND THAT REGULARLY. I have nothing to market. I have nothing to tweet. I am tweetless.
So tell me: are you a Twitterer or a Facebooker? Both? Neither? Do you blog too? Are you aware that we bloggers are in danger of becoming obsolete? Soon, there will be a site where people will type one character, say, an ‘R’ or a ’3′, and everyone will type back, ‘*’, which will convey that they found the ‘R’ or ’3” sidesplittingly funny.
This is seriously odd. We are approaching the Age of Absurdius. And you were (are) there.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 43 comments… read them below or add one }
Heh. I find that I really like Twitter, but so far Facebook and I just don’t get along.
I mean, the blog is where I’m really at home; that’s where I can natter to my hearts’ content about the geeky Jewish and poetry things that really float my boat. And sometimes people come and talk with me there, and that is awesome.
But Twitter turns out to be a good medium for me too. I post links there sometimes if I want to share them. Or I write little haiku. Or I offer tiny tidbits of Torah. The constraints of the short form are good for me. The blog and the Twitter feed balance each other out.
I do feel like I can’t possibly maintain a blog, a Twitter feed, a Facebook account, and a life. *g* Which is why FB is basically off my radar; I’m not planning to delete the account, because it’s nice that some people who I used to know have found me there (along with some people I know now, though the people who know me now mostly know where I hang out online already) but I can’t be in all of those places at once! So I empathize.
wooooooooooooord! i cried twitteruncle long ago. the age of absurdius is AWESOME. as always you make me smile. xoxoxol
Twitter is like a bright flashing light and I feel like an epileptic every time I think about it. How can you follow that many people all the time? Over-stimulation. I just want to go into a dark room and have steady, even pressure applied all over my body.
Facebook is much more do-able.
I also think I’m going to quitter twitter. Just can’t justify it.
I’ll keep Crackbookin’. And maybe I’ll pick up my blog one of these days, shake the dust off the cover (poor thing) and try my hand back at it.
But methinks my tweets grow obsolete.
I hear you, sista.
I tried the Twitter thing. It took me a whole week to come up with my opening line (which won me 5 followers). Therafter I’ve had no inspiration to keep it moving.
Even my blog has been sorely neglected. Sigh.
I facebook. I need to. If I didn’t I would be living in the stone age. With a computer. Which would be weird.
I haven’t twittered in a long time, either. I much prefer Facebook. I really do still love reading blogs, though. They offer so much more. You’ll never be obsolete to me
I have to say that I am totally obsessed with Twitter -aaaah! My hubs hates it and sees no point in it at all. I love it bc it does not require much thought or time. Both of which I seem to lack these days, or just need more of LOL. I love sharing about Vidazorb on twitter bc it has truly been an answer to prayer. I just feel like it is a wonderful way for me to help others who have kiddos with the same problem (Eczema) like our son did. It feels good to have that mission/purpose ya know? I am hoping to start a blog in the next few months, so then I will begin the juggle you speak of so fondly
BTW- do not do Facebook and have no desire to do so. That’s it. Caroline (smilinggreenmom *twitter!!)
I use twitter to be able to update my Facebook status from my phone. My cell phone carrier isn’t partnered with Facebook so I can’t do it directly, I have to have a middle man. That middle man is Twitter. It’s really helpful when I am on a road trip or something and friends and family want to know our status.
p.s.-apparently Twitter has about died today from the explosion of tweets about Michael Jackson.
My blog suffers. It sits and whines at me and says: can’t you say anything that’s longer than 120 characters?
Sometimes I need the blog because my thoughts get too long. Usually, tho, I tweet and it updates my FB right from my Crackberry. I sleep with my Crackberry, clutched in my claws. Not on purpose, just because I ZONE while reading in bed.
Personally? I don’t have much to say that’s pithy or cute, but I say it often. Mostly I moan about life and how difficult it is, until friends on FB write me emails worrying and fretting over me.
On Shabbat I try to give it up. Often, it does not work.
facebook, never twitter
I have a twitter account, but I follow few and am followed by fewer. Mostly I have feeds for a few services I use, plus of course I follow Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer!
On the other hand, I feel compelled to twitter your brilliant observation and link it to this post.
I love facebook, and farmtown!
I don’t know if I’m proud or ashamed to say that I’ve never twittered. Or logged on to twitter. Or that I don’t know how to do either.
But I’m all for the age of absurdius.
Twitter for me is a totally different thing. It’s better when not used to tell people what you are doing. It’s a venue for one liners and fantasy and kind of a funny sharing of infinitesimal slices of time of the zeitgeist.
I love how bizarre it is. Perhaps my favorite thing about it is that you don’t even know who is who and half the people who tweet (or twit, as I prefer to call it) are doing so as fictional characters. You don’t even have to be in the 20th Century. Edgar Allen Poe is one of my faves.
I totally regret ever joining because it’s horribly addictive to me. I got an invite in 2007 and held out for two years. Which is good because I’d be unemployed by now if I’d ever done it then.
My one liners aren’t even good. I’ve got like three good ones out of 100.
I think you are completely right though–it is not for everyone…it kind of satisfies a certain niche. Unfortunately, it’s like heroin if you are one of those people in that little niche.
I enjoy Twitter a lot, but I am ADHD and have a desk job, so it’s not so hard to keep up. Also, I don’t follow hundreds and hundreds of people.
I blog, as you know.
I’m on Facebook, but I’m not really *into* Facebook, if that makes sense. I tend to do perfunctory checks once or twice a week, and I rarely post anything. I do NOT participate in any of the gimmicky cutesy games, pokes, virtual pets, apps, etc. I just can’t keep up, and don’t really care to try.
I am on twitter so I can read the fun stuff that people I enjoy write. I would miss Jon Hodgman most if I left. But I am not pithy enough to tweet much myself.
Facebook, otoh, is a great way to keep track of people I might otherwise lose; all of my FB friends are people I have met in person with probably fewer than five exceptions.
Must go see what the MJ tweets are now, though.
Twitter put me over the social networking edge. I fell off the cliff and now hate everyone, computers. I say: tweet this!
Brilliant. I’m so relieved to know I’m not the only one:)
I started a Twitter account a few months back, but couldn’t keep up (after only 3 days) and deleted it. I decided a couple of days ago to give it another shot. I haven’t been blogging long, but it seems all the cool kids are doing it. And I reallyreally want to be cool. Am I cool yet? Am I? Am I?
Then again, all the cool kids seem to keep up with the hundreds they are following with ease and they update several times a day. I’m only following (7?) people so far and finding it hard to keep up. Am I cool yet?
Blogs are my first love. FB is good for catching up, seeing photos, but I can’t deal w/the quizzes and the ridiculous extras. Twitter makes me insane – how do people find time for anything. No tweeting here.
Another spot on post! And yes, all of these virtual spaces are seriously odd. I loved this.
Wait, wait, wait! Edgar Allan Poe is on TWITTER!?
*runs*
(I tweet, facebook and blog. But pay no attention to me, I have no life)
Ditto! Facebook is there when I want or need a connection fix and blogging is an outlet when and if I can fit it in. Twitter doesn’t fill any need of mine. It may not be cool to say this but I’m happy to give it a miss!
I have a blog. I adore blogging. Yesterday was my one-year anniversary.
I use twitter as a gadget on the side of my blog so that I can make little comments about things that never make it into the blog, but I actually don’t know the power of twitter. I’m kind of scared of it.
I am on facebook, but I log on about once a month, mostly just to accept new friends so they don’t think I’m snubbing them.
I have my limits, mostly are in the form of my four children, farm house, large garden, hubby, and other interests. Still, I feel unbalanced sometimes with all the time I spend gazing at the computer screen…
Interesting what you say about the more and more compressed response time as a reader. A great deal of my thesis work had to do with social acceleration, and that compressed response time is somethign that a lot of smart folk are studying right now.
Had a lot to do with why I make what I make now as a professional: tables for sitting at and talking with family over a shared meal, for example. I would loike to foster a slow-down-sit-down-talk-face-to-face-and-give-yourself-time-to-process revolution. Will you join our ranks?
I don’t understand Twitter, and I don’t plan to get into it. Facebook and blogging are enough to keep me more than busy.
I blog, I ‘book, I set up a Twitter account yesterday to follow something but have already forgotten who what, where, and why.
I Twitter. I just don’t do it every 20 seconds. It is updated less often than my Facebook. Generally, only when I update my Facebook from my Crackberry. (I can do both at the same time)
Some tweets are excessive. I quit following one news outlet because they tweeted every single news item they put online. Some stories are important (Michael Jackson has died) and others I don’t need (Gas prices rose for third straight week) and don’t need to be tweeted.
But I’ve also been to/in/at ? situations that the tweets coming from various sources is informing me as to what I am doing at that moment. I’m getting information in that gives me an advantage over the person sitting next to me who is not getting that information.
But as to my friends and getting constant updates from them? It doesn’t happen. None of us are able to keep up with anything more than MAYBE a couple times a day. If that.
I do all three, but I’m nuts.
I Facebook. All day long.
No Twitter. There are very few people whose whereabouts I need to know constantly.
Am I the only one who has read the high-school mandated doomsday books 1984 or Fahrenheit 451? Or at least seen a movie of the book (snark)?
It is absolutely absurd that we spend all of our time in front of a TV screen everywhere we go. Computers are TV screens. They are everywhere–cameras, pdas, blackberries, razrs, personal computers, work computers–we spend most of our waking life in front of a TV, essentially. a screen. But unlike a plain TV, computers are “interactive” and therefore even more consuming of our attention and time.
I’m so tired of seeing the tops of people’s heads every where I go, and yes, overwhelmed and bombarded by this constant interactiveness with a computer. We aren’t really connecting with folks when we twitter, tweet, etc. We may be conveying information, but there’s no deep communicating going on.
It’s soma. It’s overdone. I miss looking in people’s eyes and having real conversations uninterrupted by a gadget.
Whew, glad to have that off my chest. I’m no luddite, I love me some digital technology, but IT is using us more often than we use it as a tool.
I love Twitter for short takes or links to cool stuff, news of the day, etc. Facebook, esp,. if you use the notes page, is basically a blog. Stand alone blogs seem so isolated, now.
Oops-submitted too soon. I don’t know any FBers who are into Superpoke, etc. The recent Michael Jackson news brought out a ton of personal reminiscences, links to videos, music–people sharing emotions with having to write essays,
You were my second follower. You encouraged me. You showed me the Twight. Now, I am hooked.
Hi, my name is Vikki and I blog and tweet and do Facebook. It’s been 6 minutes since my last tweet/status update.
Weighing in to say that Facebook and Twitter feel like two totally different things to me. Facebook is social, twitter is news. There are a few pithy non-newsy types that I follow, but for the most part, the value of twitter is that I can get real-time news streams about very specific issues. Much of it is noise, but I have found great links that I wouldn’t have found any other way.
Facebook is great for connecting with old friends, and I’ve even used it to hunt down babysitters and people I need to connect with for work purposes, but quizzes kind of ruined the experience for me – all I ever get in my feed is quiz updates from people I barely spoke to in high school. I don’t actually care what kind of dark creature Angie Botavis is.
That sounds snotty, so I must clarify that there actually is no Angie Botavis. But seriously, the quiz thing is outta control.
Facebook and I get along like pees and carrots. Twitter blows my mind. The idea that you can follow people like Tina Fey is a lovely feature, but checking in constantly to Tina Fey’s inner thoughts as well as the rest of the WORLD every few seconds hurts my brain. Who has that much time to keep up with ALL THOSE DAMN TWITTER POSTS?
I have about 200 Twitter “friends”, 95% of whom were strangers when we started following each other. We connected on Twitter because we found each other’s posts interesting. I have now met a couple of them in person, have Facebook relationships with a couple, and have email blog relationships with a couple. All this in 5 months. I have learned many things from them, taught them some things, and have enjoyed many laughs.
Twitter is simply a communication medium. It’s what we say, and to whom, that matters. And what we do after we start conversing matters the most. I am delighted to have made connections based purely on mutual interests. That would not have happened without Twitter. The new connections have enriched my life.
Like any tool, Twitter is what you make of it. If you can’t find a way to use it that works for you, don’t use it. I find that most of the dismissive criticism does not in fact reflect what Twitter offers me.
I’m one of those blackberry addicts. Most of the time people only see the top of my head as I’m bent over my crackberry. I’m waiting for the day that I find myself in the ER after having stepped in front of traffic in my blackberry haze. I picture myself sigining out AMA because I can not get phone service!
There will always be a place for us bloggers, even those of us who have few followers. Tweeting is waterskiing; blogging is at least snorkeling, and occasionally deep-sea exploring.
I found facebook very time consuming with all the extra gadgets and do-dads, so I cut down my use dramatically. But then I turned to Twitter. I get to pick up interesting information from a wider assortment of people than I have as friends on facebook.
I’m not funny (on facebook, twitter or my blog), but neither are most of the people I follow.
i am trying to generate traffic on my sites from twitter and like to make new frds on facebook
not much into blogging though but still have few niche blogs
I facebook, but feel like I have nothing to say to Twitter. However, I wonder if Twitter may provide some good tools for work-related stuff in the future (specifically where teenagers are concerned.) I had a patient try to text (I think she was texting her boyfriend, not tweeting) through her first Pap exam – I had to draw the line and tell her to put down the damn phone.
I wish that I could blog, but can’t imagine that I’d have something to say on a regular basis. I journal online (semi-privately) but only write something blog-worthy every few months, it seems. I am jealous of those who can produce worthwhile writing so much more regularly.