The Twitter.

[dzuunmod]

I've hated Twitter ever since I first heard about it. For at least a couple of reasons. Probably more if I thought longer about it.

-“Who really cares what I am doing, every hour of the day?” wondered Alex Beam, a Boston Globe columnist, in an essay about Twitter last month. “Even I don’t care.”-I don't really need another gee-dee Internet Thing

Comments

[bee_york]

I've never heard of Twitter but i hate it already. I don't understand why people like to pretend that everyone cares that they're bored or need a nap or want their fucking coffee or whatever. Why would someone need to tell people that?? Why would someone think that someone would WANT them to tell them that?! (As you know it's one of the things I hated most about Facebook.)
Why why why why why why WHY?????
If someone could give me one good explanation, I would feel SO MUCH BETTER!!!!!!!!!

[dzuunmod]

Obviously the quote that I give from the NYT isn't cutting it for you.

[bee_york]

No, it doesn't answer my question at all, because it doesn't make any sense.

[dzuunmod]

It makes perfect sense to me. Not saying it's a good enough reason for me to sign up, but it does make perfect sense.

You don't see how, taken on its own, one LJ post might not matter much. But if you read someone's LJ for months and months (particularly someone you don't know in person), you begin to get a good idea of what that person is like?

I mean, it depends on how someone uses LJ, and how often they use it, but I can think of a lot of people on my friends' list who I've never met, but I feel like I know better than some people I actually do know in person.

[bee_york]

But LJ has actual content. Not mundane comments like granola bar-eating and needing a nap. It's not telling you things you actually need to know about your friend. It's just meaningless comments that say NOTHING. They don't "paint some kind of portrait" or tell you anything insightful. That is such BS, lmao. How can comments like "so-and-so is drinking her coffee now" or "so-and-so is cranky because they missed their nap" tell you *anything*? Except of course that all your friends are exactly the same and do exactly the same things. :P

[dzuunmod]

I think that for someone who doesn't have Twitter herself, you're assuming an awful lot about how people use it. I know people who make *exactly* those sorts of assumptions about blogs and online journals like LJ.

[bee_york]

I dont understand.

[bee_york]

Oh never mind i know what you mean!
Well obviously I'm not talking about the people who actually have interesting lives and put interesting updates. I'm talking about the other 99% of the population, who are really boring, and who use this twit thing the way everyone I know uses FB.

[wendykh]

I know lots of people who DO use LJ that way. A friend of mine writes about NOTHING in her LJ besides "today we got coffee and then went to Sue's house where we went swimming. Joey slept 8 hours. We watched this movie." But she chronicles her WHOLE DAY in depth, and has hundreds of people on her f-list and they freak the hell out if a day goes by with no post. There is no deep thoughtful content, there is no swearing, there is no political discussion. No sex, and she and her husband are non drinking non drugging Christians. So boring. But yk, some people dig that. A lot of people write for themselves, and are baffled why others assume we care whether or not YOU care we just got coffee. We're just sharing. What does that say about people who don't post that way; that they actually think people DO care about their Deep Thoughts?

[sourdick]

please review my journal now.. (serious) :(

[wendykh]

see yeah that sort of thing but you're way funnier. She's not even that funny. And I love her and she's my dear friend from ages ago but I so do not get the appeal of her blog. AT ALL.

[bee_york]

See that's how I am. I think my journal would be so boring if I were someone on the outside reading it. But for some reason so many people tell me they looove my LJ and can I please add them bla bla. I don't understand why. o_O To "protect" myself, even, I put a disclaimer on my info page that says "I write this for ME". Nevertheless, I can't understand why people find some of the stuff I write interesting. of course *I* like it, but that's because I'm *me*, hehehe.

[raccoonbonapart]

I agree. I like livejournal a lot better for staying in touch with people because you get in depth updates about what's going on with them. I think that facebook status updates are like the "moods" on livejournal. For example, a facebook update might say, "Sally is super excited about her date!" but you're more likely to get the details about her date if she updates her livejournal.

I think that facebook is for shallow/fun communication. You can play games with people like scrabble or boggle and it's fun to look at everyone's pictures, but if you want details and depth about what's going on with someone, facebook doesn't really cut it.

[fiercecupcake]

What it comes down to for me:

* I don't give a fuck if anyone else cares or reads my tweets. I care about what I'm doing. Sometimes Twitter ends up being a chat box for me and a bunch of friends. Sometimes it's just to post a link. Sometimes it's keeping track of what kinds of tea I've been drinking lately. Sometimes I read my daily digests and sometimes I don't.

* I do give a fuck about reading the minutiae of my partner's day. If it were up to me I would have a live video feed from her eyeballs. Twitter is a poor replacement but it will have to do for now. :]

[fiercecupcake]

I guess it goes along with how I feel about LJ. I like the social part of it, and the update part? I do that when I feel like it. Which is why I don't have a "blog," per se. I don't want to feel like I ever have to update anything. This is for me. Y'all are just reading it. And I like to read what y'all have to say when you feel like writing your updates.

Also, it is fun to Twitter during political speeches. :P

[dzuunmod]

Which is why I don't have a "blog," per se. I don't want to feel like I ever have to update anything.

But, do blogs imply schedules and frequency? I don't think so. If I want to stop writing (not bloody likely), my readers/friends can deal, I'm sure.