Thursday, March 12, 2009

Crikey!

Yes, alarm.

Shane: Blah blah blah workish blah blah blah.

Emma: Mm. Or maybe, something a bit more Web 2.0?

Shane: 'Web two point oh'?

Emma: Mm. (pause) What?

Shane: Where did you learn to speak like that?

Emma: Like what?

Shane: 'Like Web 2.0'.

Emma: I read things.

Shane: Well, what are you on about?

Emma: Y' know, new technologies, new media, new ways of communicating - Facebook, Twitter, 3G technologies -

Shane: Whoaaaaaaa! Just calm down for a minute, there!

Emma: - You know you're going to have to.

Shane: Och och och and och!

Emma: Am I right?

Shane: Maybe.

Especially spurred on, I think, by Stephen Fry's everywhereness and his prosthletising about the many merits of Twitter, people who I would not have imagined playing along with such sports, have been. (*whispers* And yes alright so maybe it does look a bit fun). But do I really want to start something that I really don't think that I'd sustain? And isn't it all just going to turn out a bit Facebook. And - most pertinently - what is it that people are getting out of all of this? I mean, really getting out of it. Apart from the warm glow of feeling connected - in an acceptably mundane sort of way. I mean, apart from that, what is it?

I'm feeling archaic, like a bit of a dinosaur, like the sort of person to whom the idea of public lists of his friends or 'followers' would feel odd. What about the uncouth and the deranged - the ones not on the list? Now, if Jesus were alive today... well, 'whale of a time', he'd lap it up - fish to water, duck to pond, Hart to Hart. But I'm not Jesus.

(blog posting interruptus)

I've just watched a short film, 'Twitter in plain English', on the Twitter site. It was... it was... it was really nice - when Carla discovered that Steve had a passion for baseball, and when she discovered that Julia was reading a new investment book, and when everyone - yes, everyone - discovered that Carla - herself - had a new passion for Van Halen!

Too good, just too good. I felt all warm inside. I want that feeling. I want that feeling that Carla had.

Perhaps when I've got a moment one weekend.

9 comments:

Tim said...

I've been Tweeting for less than a month and I think it's great. Its not about the followingness, 'cos that's just empty and hollow, etc.
What I like is the 140 character discipline that it imposes on you, and lots of people are just really funny. It's light and chirpy and very enjoyable.

I recommend giving it a whirl, and if it's not for you, well then you can stop.
www.twitter.com/idiotjohnson

LB said...

I like to think I am quite up to speed with this sort of thing, but I have to say I find Twitter a pointless waste of time.

(Tim and I haven't helped, here, in so much as we appear to have cancelled each other out....)

Huw said...

It can be nice. I resisted for years, as it struck me as a lot of people blabbering on about what they would have for dinner, or that they were popping to the shops. But you can pick and choose who you follow, and edit out the sort of people who just go on about how busy B&Q is.

Avoid most of the celebrities though; many of them are masters of the "think my car's brakes need a service" school (especially Fry).

Queenie said...

I'm up to Web 0.5: web searching, online purchasing, email, blogging and texting. That's how it works, isn't it? 0.1 point per technological communicative function?

Shane said...

Tim - it's a discipline thing - absolutely.
LB - a time thing - got to agree.
Huw - selectivity - important, yes.
Queenie - a numbers game, eh - it's a thought, and that's what counts. (...See how I used italics, there - so that you'd spot the really not very amusing pun. Did you spot the really not very amusing pun. It was the numbers/count thing. ...Yeah.

Meanwhile... said...

Twitter seems designed to demand always-on-ness, so fast and frequent are the twitterings.

Always-on-ness not particularly a good thing, I conclude.

Shane said...

Mr Meanwhile - THAT is what I feel uneasy about. Rarely-on-ness, I can do, and I do do. Always-on-ness... not now, not ever.

Pat said...

I'm wit LB - even though I know little about it - it's just one more dam thing to take over my life.

Carnalis said...

There are many reasons why i enjoy twitter (as Tim said). The occasional 140-bit wave works as well as (if not better) than always-on-ness