Comments on: Twitter Agonistes

By: Planck Launch One Week Away | Cosmic Variance | Discover Magazine

Planck Launch One Week Away | Cosmic Variance | Discover Magazine — Fri, 08 May 2009 03:55:44 +0000

[...] from the European Space Agency (ESA). You can also follow the mission using any number of those newfangled methods the young folk seem to be getting into – see Andrew Jaffe’s post over at Leaves on the Line [...]

By: Is Twitter Just a Big Ego Trip? « iblogo

Is Twitter Just a Big Ego Trip? « iblogo — Wed, 06 May 2009 13:10:42 +0000

[...] Carroll, “Twitter Agonistes,” Discover, April 23, [...]

By: Andrew S

Andrew S — Sun, 03 May 2009 10:50:41 +0000

The real problem with twitter is that it’s a centralized service controlled by a single company. It’s sort of like what AOL mail or Compuserve mail were back before they joined the real internet. Twitter is a walled garden and a single point of failure.

By: ptah

ptah — Fri, 01 May 2009 07:37:39 +0000

“But the claim that Twitter is nothing but mindless inanities is just as wrong as the analogous claim for blogs — in fact it’s precisely the same claim, five years later. ”

And – just as with blogs – it is false to say that Twitter is NOTHING BUT mindless inanities.

However – just as with blogs – it is MOSTLY mindless inanities.

By: mk

mk — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:58:19 +0000

@ James…

Ah, “onewhinesmanship” I think is better! Go with it.

And thanks to ChrisG for playing along! ;^}

By: James

James — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:57:00 +0000

ChrisG: I’m not judging. I just want a nice name for it.

By: ChrisG

ChrisG — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 19:59:55 +0000

Oh, just a reminder that Twitter isn’t always about “What I had for dinner”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8018017.stm

By: ChrisG

ChrisG — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 19:58:25 +0000

@James

Last I checked, when someone posted something on the internet, they are inviting a reply.

By: James

James — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 05:41:20 +0000

How about “onewhinesmanship”?

By: James

James — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 05:39:50 +0000

@mk: That’s pretty good. I also like James’s Law. I guess we’d have to make it into a law first.

By: Claire C Smith

Claire C Smith — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 23:18:36 +0000

Sean,

I am a Twit now. In some ways, wish I hadn’t bothered being a Twit, but the people/followers seem ok tho. Can’t see my self dropping it now, for fear or offending what followers I have (haven’t yet got round to talking to anyone on show, just direct msgs to and fro).

You know that Campbell’s Condensed Soup, Twitter is like that – but without the soup.

Claire

By: Moshe

Moshe — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 18:22:05 +0000

The column by Maureen Down is really terrific. You would think it is dumbed down intentionally to demonstrate how the soundbite format makes communication superficial. This would be a brilliant way to make the point, unless you are familiar with all the other columns Dowd write over her long career…

By: greg

greg — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 18:18:43 +0000

Just what the world needs – a plague of self absorbed inane text snippets, polluting the radio spectrum.

By: mk

mk — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 17:39:36 +0000

@James…

“Circular Whining”?

By: James

James — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 11:21:50 +0000

Yet another instance of the following:

1. Some people do X, where X is something that is easily avoided if you want to.
2. Some other people complain about people doing X. These complaints are easily avoided if you want to.
3. Some people (often a subset of those who do X) complain about people complaining about people who do X, on the grounds that X is easily avoided if you want to, though they usually fail to mention that the complaints they’re complaining about are easily avoided if you want to. These complaints are also easily avoided if you want to.
4. You get the idea.

This phenomenon needs a nice, pithy name.

By: Ray Saunders

Ray Saunders — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 22:06:06 +0000

Personally, I see no reason to Twitter. I have a FB account mostly to share photos and news with family and a few friends, but I ignore the ‘applications’ there. I have no objections to others using Twitter, but then, I have no objections to them jumping of cliffs or drinking themselves to death. It’s a free country.
I think most grumpy old Luddite curmudgeons feel the users of making more of less…pretty soon they will be ‘friends’ with everyone but not really know anyone. All relationships will be virtual (sounds like the subject of a thesis for a psych PHD, doesn’t it?)
BTW: My blog is entitled Get Off My Lawn
LOL

By: rob

rob — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:06:30 +0000

c’mon, drink the twitter kool-aid…

By: daisyrose

daisyrose — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:55:46 +0000

What about ones own thoughts – How can you have them if you are constantly interrupted – Steady stream of what ? It is difficult for me to clear my mind – stop the chatter – decide between thousands of possibilities – All the Foofaraw …… getting used to quiet. …. and finally: Ideas – ways of looking at things I never planned on all on my own.

However
If you want to feel connected and important – and that gives you the energy you need to do your work you are in luck – instantly ! Twitter.

By: Lab Lemming

Lab Lemming — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 11:44:15 +0000

Twitter effects non-users when great bloggers start twittering and stop writing informative, interesting posts like they used to.

Of course, it is possible that they’d quit without twitter, but those who haven’t quit, merely dropped from three days a week to once every three weeks are probably twtting instead of writing.

Some examples include:
http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/
http://scienceblogs.com/greengabbro/
and
http://highway8a.blogspot.com/
Who actually fesses up here:
http://highway8a.blogspot.com/2009/04/this-site-worth-variable-amounts.html

By: Phillip Helbig

Phillip Helbig — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 09:16:28 +0000

“Good time-related quotes being sought. “The future’s not ours to see.” — Doris Day”.

If you’re still looking, how about “Dessa dagar som kom och gick, inte visste jag
att det var livet.” Author is Stig Johansson, described on the web page
http://www.livet.se/ord/k%C3%A4lla/Stig_Johansson as an “aphoristicist”. Now
that’s a nice job. A translation is “All these days which came and went, I didn’t know
that that was life.” As a Twitter motto, how about the classic self-referential quote from
Stephen Jay Gould: “No one-liner is ever optimal.”