Response to anti-Twitter AdvertisingAge article

There's an article by Simon Dumenco at AdvertisingAge criticizing Twitter--people seem to either "get" Twitter or not get it, to love it or hate it, and this guy's in the latter club. But what distinguished this particular bashing is that the author chose some tweets at random to highlight in his article, and one of them was from our very own Ian Hocking. I wrote a comment on the article and submitted it, but there's no guarantee that it's going to see the light of day, so I'll blog it here as well:

I figure it's about as likely as your posting random names from a phone book and one of them being someone I know. But there you have it, that's what happened. You quoted three recent tweets in your article and the first, by ian_hocking, is someone I know--virtually, but for two or three years now. I'm subscribed to his tweets and his blog, he to mine. We're virtual pen pals. Ian tweeted:

ian_hocking: Having a nap in the hope my feverish symptoms will abate.

You characterized his comment and two other comments, from Davidmohara and MrGuilt, as "undifferentiated, self-indulgent crap."

I can see your point: there's no reason why you should care that Ian was off to nap last weekend because he wasn't feeling well, or that MrGuilt was back from lunch, as he tweeted. But you're missing the point: *I* cared that Ian was sick over the weekend, and the people who know him and are subscribed to his tweets cared. He wasn't writing his comments for you--though they were available for you to see--but for his Twitter followers, who wouldn't be his followers if they didn't want to know what he was up to.

Twitter is not thousands of people tweeting their every move to the world at large. It's thousands of interconnected, opt-in communities in which people are tweeting their whereabouts and current reading and lunch plans and health updates to the members of their virtual communities--which may include people in their real-life communities too, like family members and work mates.

I would imagine, for all your grumbling, that there were people in MrGuilt's circle who wanted to know whether he'd made it back from lunch yet or not. You wouldn't care, but you weren't meant to.

Debra Hamel
(twitter.com/Debra_Hamel)

Tags: AdvertisingAge, Twitter, Simon Dumenco, Ian Hocking, Web 2.0

Comments

[Susan]

1.

Excellent response, Debra! I was tempted to respond too, but all I could come up with was "Well, you're a nasty little bugger, aren't you?". I figured that would never see the light of day.

You're quite right, too - we actually *do* care that Ian was feeling ill and that now he's feeling better.

[Ian Hocking]

2.

Well said, Debra. I've posted by own reply to this article: http://ianhocking.com/2007/04/much-ado-about-tweeting.html

[Ellen Weber]

3.

You spoke for many of us out here and thanks Debra! Great post.

[Debra Hamel]

4.

Thanks, Ellen!

[Maxine]

5.

When will people get that the Internet is a personalisable cornucopia? Everyone can create and enjoy their own little corner. These people who feel bound to criticise just don't need to, they can go off and do their own thing somewhere else.

[Clare]

6.

Well said.... I think Susan summed it up pretty succinctly too.

[Debra Hamel]

7.

Thanks, Clare! (Susan does have a way with words, eh?) So does this mean you'll join us on Twitter?

[Clare]

8.

I'm sure you've told me this already (my brain seems to have given up the ghost just recently) but what do I do?

[Debra Hamel]

9.

We've got her!

Go to http://www.twitter.com and create a (free) account for yourself. It'll just take a minute. Then add people you know to your list of friends. (I'm Debra_Hamel, Susan is Susan_Victoria, Ian is Ian_Hocking, for example.) You add them by going to their profile page (e.g., www.twitter.com/Debra_Hamel) and clicking the add as friend button.

Your "friend" is someone whose tweets you'll receive. Your followers will receive your tweets. The two do not have to overlap but very often will.

For a very cool graphic of what's going on in the world of Twitter, see twittervision.com

You can "tweet" a message (limit of 140 characters) in a great many ways, e.g., from the twitter.com site, and using third-party software such as Twitterific for Macs and Twitteroo for PCs. (See a big list here: http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Apps.)

Some people hate it, but it's really addictive and interesting and useful in lots of different ways.