Don’t Fear the Tweeter
02/03/2009If I haven’t already beaten this horse to death, let me continue. Increasing the number of Twitter followers can be overwhelming. It has been compared to drinking from a fire hose and I can personally testify that there’s nobody there to adjust the pressure! Once you go over the 100 following threshold, you’re bound to encounter so many tweets that you just want to give up. After the initial guilt over skipping posts passes, you tend to look for information from people you personally know.
I use Tweetdeck on my laptop which provides a grouping feature that allows me to see posts from particular users. However, this makes it easy to miss interesting items from common sources and forces reliance on your trusted friends to re-tweet stuff you might have missed. While I do have a trusted cadre of people that do this, I certainly don’t want this to be my safety net.
There is also the issue of people who tweet anything and everything that pops into their minds. Let’s call them tweeter-mouths. Some of these people have the BriteKite application installed that tweets their current location. It surprises me that I’m not finding out when they’re in the toilet! Then there are the folks who take oral hygiene habits to extreme and tweet after every meal with a recap of their menu. While I am sometimes interested in where people are or what they have eaten, I really only want to know if these things are interesting. A trip to the gas station or McDonalds meal might be something that inquiring minds want to know but I avoid that rag for a reason. Add to this the tweeting, re-tweeting, and more re-tweeting of AllTop.com lists and my head is just about ready to explode!
Is this just a symptom of not being able to cope with new technology due to a generational gap? Is it possible that younger people are able to filter out noise better than me? I may be in denial but I refuse to believe that this is true. As I’m fond of saying, “acquiescence is approval” and I do not approve. I will continue my search for new techniques and potential allies in the war on blather. Can I get an amen from the congregation?
So That's Life? 
AAAAAMEN!!!! Sometimes I just have to tell myself, “step away from the computer.” A day or so later I can get back to it again.
Thanks Tammi. I think that perhaps it’s a generational thing to be glued to the computer.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAmmmmmmmmen! I think it’s a generational thing. When looking for a phone number my friends say “just Google it” for me that is more of a hassle because I have to turn on my computer, wait for everything to load….for this old granny, the phone book’s still faster.
I think it is a generational thing. I’m one of those people who say Google it. BTW, that would’ve been faster than waiting for someone to find where they left a phone number. If there’s a digital way to do it, I’m all for it.
However, I do agree that sometimes the Twitterrhea can be overkill. Sometimes you just have to have faith that the good or important stuff will get to you somehow.
I think that perhaps it’s a generational thing to be glued to the computer.
As I reflect on it, I’m inclined to think it is genetic. I might ignore twitter for a weekend but I can’t possibly go a day without checking email. This is especially true with the iPhone.
Amen! But I have noticed that a lot of people who started out as tweeter-mouths (and you know who you are), eventually bring it down to something more reasonable.