Now I held steadfast to this dissenting opinion until I slightly began to waver in late August. My fall from grace (sorry to steal your phrase Tiger) was the result of a two-pronged attack. First and foremost, was the persuasive efforts of the powers that be at the fine company where I am employed. In a departmental meeting in late August we were all strongly encouraged to join Twitter-mania. Management essentially told us that if we weren't on Twitter we were missing out. Once the initial shock of realizing that I would have to reconsider my position on the social media website wore off a few producers chimed in and mentioned that they get information for their shows on Twitter long before it shows up on our internal news wire. It was at this point that I knew deep down that this siege would be one that I could not endure much longer.
Secondly was the persistent peer pressure (what up alliteration) from some of my closest friends. All throughout the summer they told me that I had to join Twitter. It's awesome. I'm missing out. They would text me funny tweets by professional athletes, etc. etc. I brushed all of this aside for as long as I could, but whether you know it or not, your friends can convince you to do just about anything.
I held out from joining the site for another month purely based on principle (I said I was anti-Twitter, I can't change my mind now), but earlier this month I registered an account (@DanStanczyk if you want to follow me). Within an hour I received a text from my buddy Frank over at ThePopCultureIniative that said, "I knew you'd cave. Welcome to Twitter. It's a Brave New World."
Of course I realize that in the grand scheme of things I'm way late to the party. In fact, as far as fads go I'm almost certainly a laggard, but I'm ok with it.
Obviously I'm still new to the site and I'm still getting by bearings, but in the short time that I've been tweeting (some people just follow, but I'm way to expressive for that) I've come to notice some positives and negatives. FYI- of my roughly 60 tweets the majority have been sports related (surprise, surprise). Despite what my friends told me, Twitter, while definitely a useful tool, isn't the greatest thing in the world. So here is a quick pro's and con's list, if you will.
Pro's
- Twitter makes browsing the internet 10 times easier. Instead of wasting your time aimlessly searching for news and articles that you might find interesting Twitter puts those articles at your fingertips. Deciding who to follow is key in achieving this bonus. If you follow your favorite writers, reporters, magazines, etc. they will often include links in their tweets to articles that you will enjoy. In this respect, Twitter consolidates your web browsing and brings it right to you.
- Twitter rewards timing and ingenuity. Demonstrating creativity and humor in your musings will get the attention of your friends and others that share your interests. The key though is timing. Twitter time is very accelerated. For instance, if you're watching a sporting event and tweeting about what you see, the window for you to make an insightful tweet is very limited. In a few minutes everyone else watching that game will have moved on to the next play, the next quarter, etc.
- As shallow as it may seem, Twitter gives you a glimpse inside the mind of the very celebrities that our culture glorifies. This kind of access to our stars and starlettes is unprecedented. We get their thoughts, their opinions, and things that they find interesting instantaneously. At the very least this is both mildly intriguing and entertaining.
- This one might only apply for egomaniacs like me, but Twitter gives you a platform. Everyone wants their voice to be heard somehow and someway and Twitter allows for this to happen. Sure it's not a huge platform, but it's a start. It's a way to share your ideas and connect with others you may not otherwise have connected with.
Con's
- The immediacy of Twitter is crazy. To borrow the famous line from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." That pretty much sums up Twitter right there. It's hard to keep up with the tweets of everyone that you follow and it's hard to find the window to tweet effectively.
- Along the same lines, Twitter forces you to try to be creative. You feel the pressure to conjure up a witty statement about whatever is happening at that moment. Thinking is hard and nobody likes doing it and the timing issue only exacerbates the problem.
- Once you first tweet there's no going back. Almost immediately you feel as if you have to keep up with everybody else. It's such a high paced environment that right after you tweet something you are almost already thinking about what you'll tweet next. My unnamed cousin, who is not on Twitter, recently told me that he has a pet aquarium...on his iPhone. He said he routinely has to feed his virtual fish and clean his virtual aquarium. Of course I told him that that is the dumbest thing of all time, but Twitter is almost the same way. You just feel like you have to feed your fish and tweet your little heart away and that you have to clean the tank and read everyone else's tweets.
- That all said, as pathetic as it is, Twitter also reminds you how inconsequential you really are. I'm wasting all this time thinking of creative ways to express my thoughts on trivial matters and no one really cares what I have to say. Until you become famous enough that your twitter account has to be verified (my friend Frank's goal) your tweets don't really matter all that much.
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