1. Good Concept, Poor Execution
The idea of Twitter makes sense, a free flowing sea of information generated by the users for the users. But in action, this simplistic goal is bogged down and diluted by it's own technical shortcomings. Any website that can only be tolerated by using a third party application has a major design flaw. Nobody...well, nobody that knows how to set the timer on their microwave tweets via Twitter. Whether it be Peep, Echofon, Tweetdeck, Twitdroid, Spaz, or whatever the hell you use...A home-grown solution is needed to make the site more bearable. Using one of these is like knowing how to swim before you jump in the ocean...if not, you bound to drizzown.
My biggest problem is the fact that debates & conversations are very difficult to follow (no pun intended). If you aren't following everybody that's involved in the discussion, you instantly missed everything they've added unless you go "Dog the bounty hunter" style and start checking the replies. If that person has protected tweets, then it's just a lost cause. The other way around this is by re-tweeting what you are responding to. This method leaves you in a maze of @So&So, #'s, & RTs that will make it unclear who said what...all while trying to get a full thought across withing the 140 character cap.
Speaking of the 140 character cap: it seems like the creators and the users have two different opinions of what should be tweeted. The creators seemed to have intended for a quick, succinct statement of what you are doing or what you are thinking. The users, however, use it differently. This often happens, where the designer will give people a tool and expect it to be used one way, but then the users take that tool to a new, higher level by making it more functional than planned. This, however, is a gift and a curse.
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| I'm on a boat!!! I must tweet this! (http://www.innyvinny.com/2010/08/10/oh-slate/) |
2. I Don't Really Care What You Are Doing
I've created a list of about 100 people that I follow. This is after weeks of #UnFollowFridays, when I rid myself of the people that use Twitter in a manner that I don't care to see. I follow a few celebrities and news providers, they are the ones that I get the most quality from. Comedians are making jokes and giving show dates, athletes are talking trash to each other, ESPN is tweeting the headline of the hour, & Porn Stars tweet naked pics of themselves (Shout out to @IsisTaylor). All are providing quality entertainment...some more so than others, but that's to be expected. My friends (general users) are a mixed bag. You get some that will post funny random comments about anything from Chris Brown's bowtie to the rapist in Lincoln Park. Others will just give you the terrible "a day in the life" tweets that I don't need to know about.
"@SellFish_Phool I'm soo tired this morning, OMG! #CoffeeBitches!" - Why do I care about this? Maybe you should stop touching yourself at night and get some rest so I don't have to hear about how tired you are.
"@Observe&Report Wow, I'm tripping! I can't believe that just happened" - I can't believe it either...probably because I have no idea what the Joe Flacco you are talking about. What's the point of sharing that incomplete thought to the world when nobody else will understand it?
"@NewlySingle How you just gonna treat me like that??? Don't think for a minute you gonna do better than me!" - *Sigh* beefing with ex's in public is not cool...it's 30X worse when you decide to do it on a social networking site. Maybe your public, over dramatic shenanigans are one of the causes of your newly changed relationship status.
I'm not even going to start on the use and abuse of those trending topics that makes everyone think they are an expert on life and all its nuances. If it wasn't for #TittyTuesday & #UnFollowFriday, I would swear them off all together
3. You Can't Collect Thoughts For Future Reading
Twitter is the equivalent of standing next to the interstate to watch cars pass. You get exactly what you came to see, some are better than others, some new, some old, with different colors, classes, and styles. Every now and then, you'll get a two or three "tweet-car" pile up and if you are lucky, you get to stand to the side and rubber-neck so you can run and tell that (homeboy). The downside of this, is that when those good arguments, debates, event planning, tweeting after dark sessions end...their gone. Everyone that participated has a trail of their role in their history, but that's not enough to recreate the dialog. For anybody that wasn't watching it as it happened, it's just a legend. Yes, I can ask the people involved what time it started and scour my time line to go to the beginning and try to follow it, but again, I probably won't get the full picture.
I feel this is a waste of time. Why bother to discuss anything that may need to be recalled later on Twitter? Sure you can try to add a # to whatever the topic is, but that still doesn't make it a smooth way to archive. I always second guess myself when I'm about to tweet. I consider the time & who's tweeting right now to try and decide whether the 140 characters of straight knowledge I'm about to drop is going to be wasted and lost in the shuffle with the common tweets. Am I over estimating the quality of my own tweets??? Of course not (You can follow me on Twitter @TheBrodieXP), but by not being able to have an easy to access archive...I'm forced to consider this.
I'm not saying that Twitter should be shut down. I'm not saying that I don't care about what others have to say. But what I am saying is that the tool does not suit the use that the users have given it. I'd much rather read a status on Facebook where I can read all of the comments about it in one place than click 17 times to get 2/5's of the conversation.
What do you think about Twitter? Am I just taking shots at the throne?
1. I agree with the good concept, poor execution bit. It wasn't quite meant to be used on their main site, back when it first started, the main idea was to broadcast using text message and a basic communication medium. Let's face it, the way we utilize social networking was vastly different today than it was back in 2006 when Twitter was created. Noboby would have guessed how Facebook evolved from its college only beginnings. With the democratization of information and allowing anyone to use it, I bet the founders didn't expect it to be used like it is today. In that regard, it's hard to control what the service evolves to. This and other points you raise isn't specific to Twitter, but to most social networking tools.
ReplyDelete2. Continuing on above point about how it's tolerable by 3rd party apps, it's a good and bad strategy to allow users to customize and thus leave room for expansion of service instead of being limited to just its offerings. Much like Facebook, you can now link your activity on other sites to centralize your information outflow through one medium by connecting various services, which can be useful for influential social networkers. Twitter would have died pretty quick had they not allowed that. TweetDeck allowed users to categorize tweets (which led to the lists function) and I believe it was only through 3rd party apps that people started enhancing Twitter's potential by allowing users to attach photos and videos.
3. I think the 80/20 rule speaks volumes on Twitter (actually it might be closer to 95/5 at times), but being consistent with the point I've made before, as you democratize information, it easily gets filled with junk, self affirmation, trivialization, etc like 'bird just pooped on my ice cream, fml, why do i want to continue living anymore?!' I prefer to look at the few bright spots on this dark canvas to know that there can be good done through this medium. One simple text message sent to Twitter saved a guy's life when he was imprisoned in a foreign land, breaking news can be reported by people right there instead of waiting for news crew to gather their gears and report (the US Airway on Hudson River incident was covered much earlier via Twitter) and see how Iran's elections were covered while the government was trying to cover up developments of protest. There is a lot of good that has been done, allowing people who didn't have an avenue for their voices to be heard otherwise.
Many of your points highlight concerning issues with increased usage of social media as a whole. It's more of a social issue of the me-me-me, I'm right, you're wrong, the world revolves around me generation that we live in than a specific problem with Twitter, I think.
OK, that was good use of my lunch time.
Valid points. The evolution of any successful service is really defined by it's users. But once it's been determined how people want to use it, and you see the gaps due to the service's shortcomings, it needs to upgrade. Facebook, for example, has implemented change after change based on what the users want & how they have used it.
ReplyDeleteLike I said, I agree that the concept of Twitter is valid, but it's rare that I get to see it in a quality light. Yes, Twitter reported that Michael Jackson died hours before any major news outlet did. However, they also reported last week that Bill Cosby died. So there's some give & take and I don't look for Twitter to be my main source of fact.
I got on twitter super late (a few months ago) to see what it was about
ReplyDeleteand mainly to see how a company could use it. Conclusion about it was
the same yet I continue to "try" to give it a chance. I read a few of the 7
follows and get nothing. I post crap and find facebook a better way to share.
BUT i do like how twitter feels more detached from you and your profile.
Thats about it. Twitter does suck to me. Adding a bit more function
could save twitter. I think it will die off at its current state. 140 characters?
super weak.