

Ask YC: Why should I care about Twitter? - the1pato

Are many of our news.YC users also Twitter users? What do you find that you like about Twitter?
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ardit33
Twitter reflects the overrall california lifestyle and the shallowness of
conections made in here. Comming from the east coast, I can tell there is a
huge difference on friends I have in SF, and friends I have in Boston. I know
more people, and have more "friends" in california, but for some reason they
tend to be more of the "good times" types, while in Boston I had less friends,
but more people I could rely on and stronger connections.

So, with twitter, you just broadcast something to a bunch of your "friends",
while in the east coast you would just normally text few of your friends
directly.

And, there is a good reason they call it "California RSVP". Some people call
it shallow, some call it "laid-back", it depends on your point of view, but I
have gotten used to it.

~~~
rantfoil
Hm, not exactly sure how a question about Twitter became an indictment against
California / Californians. Lets stay on topic.

~~~
ardit33
Honestly, it is not an indictment, just an observation. I actually like having
many friends, getting invited to many things, but I also don't like when many
people RSVP to things, and they just don't show up. I actually can directly
quanitfy and compare this at soccer games. In boston about 80% of yes-es would
actually show up at games. In SF about 60%.

I guess, you could also argue that in the east coast, people are less
friendly, so you have fewer friends and people have to keep them closer and
dearly, or that in SF there is a lot of stuff to do, and people can get easily
ditracted.

BTW. I am european, so don't want to transform this in a west coast vs. east
coast thing.

When it comes to twitter, I am not sure how much the general crowd would be
interested in it. Taking example something like blogs: it has instant appeal
in a lot of people, because basically it is an online diary.

A lot of people have diaries, and bringing them online was something natural.

But twitter? I am not sure it solves a need to the general masses, except for
the hyperconnected ones.

~~~
vlbrown
> Taking example something like blogs: it has instant appeal in a lot of
> people, because basically it is an online diary.

If you think back 8 or 10 years, a lot of people didn't understand blogs. They
were dismissed as being the online diaries of a bunch of self-centered
20-somethings and teenagers. Who would want to read that What were they good
for?

I think Twitter (microblogging) is in the same place blogs were, and where the
web itself was in 1994 and 1995. We're still determining what can be used for
and how it can be used. Already, the Twitter community has changed the rules.
Twitter isn't what Obvious originally thought it would be two years ago. Keep
in mind, Twitter began in March 2006.

------
run4yourlives
Well, I've tried twitter for few weeks and ended up turning most of it off,
because honestly, I don't give a damn that you're eating lunch at some new
restaurant, or giving your dog a bath, or watching TV with your wife.

I find the service is basically a big giant intrusion into my life. 99% of the
crap that pops up I just don't care about. 99% I put into the thing I can
guarantee others don't care about either.

I think this social networking stuff has huge scaling problems outside of the
navel gazing that happens both in the valley and during one's college years.
Most people outside of these zones feel neither the need nor the desire to be
_that_ connected to others.

This isn't a knock on twitter as a service, just a general observation. It's
going to take a profound change in thinking to create a world that twitter and
others can truly exploit. This could also just be this Gen X'er showing his
age, so take my comment with a grain of salt.

~~~
vlbrown
But again, if You don't care what I am doing, that whatever possessed you to
"follow" me? You only follow the people you WANT to follow. You only read what
you WANT to read. You turn on SMS (or IM) notifications at YOUR preference.
The only way Twitter can be a "big giant intrusion" into your life is if YOU
turn that on!

It's like saying, 99% of the stuff on television is crap but failing to
realize that you control the tv and you don't have to watch that stuff!

~~~
run4yourlives
No, it's like saying 99% of the stuff on TV is crap, so I don't see the value
in having a TV.

Like I said, we're talking personal preferences here, so don't get so
emotional about it.

~~~
vlbrown
I think "it's a giant intrusion into my life" was getting emotional. :)

------
wallflower
The best description I've read of Twitter..

"ShoeMoney: Sure you follow people you care what they say and then are alerted
when they say something. Its a great cross between a instant messenger and a
blog."

------
epi0Bauqu
It just turns out Twitter focuses conversation in a different way than email,
IM, blogs, status messages, etc. And if you are interested in that type of
conversation, then you should care.

------
xenoterracide
I personally don't think you should. I myself find 'social networking' to be a
large waste of time.

people like to play silly games, and change things like mood, or the music
they are playing.

the social notice I want? was the phone call I got a 7am a few weeks ago a
friend telling me her fiance and my former room-mate had died.

or how about a text saying, "wanna meet for lunch?"

I haven't used twitter, but the whole social thing seems a waste of time. I
have better things to be doing, like building a business, or school, or
finding a job to help me pay the bills in the mean time.

~~~
calvin
I've found Twitter to be a great aid to me w/ networking. For the most part, I
add people I try to add people I meet at business networking events. I've
gotten to know several people in the Seattle startup scene by going to real
networking events and then continuing to follow up and build the relationships
through Twitter.

Speaking of lunch, I've used it for that as well. Once your friends start
using Twitter enough, it's easy to shoot them a message and ask if they want
to grab lunch especially if they're in the same area.

~~~
xenoterracide
see this is part of the problem with social networking.

'once your friends start using twitter enough'

it's proprietary and unstandardized, unlike email or phone numbers where it
doesn't matter as much what network you are on, you can still make and receive
messages. (I know cells are very proprietary, but you can still get calls
right?).

~~~
witten
> it's proprietary and unstandardized, unlike email or phone numbers where it
> doesn't matter as much what network you are on, you can still make and
> receive messages.

That's the thing that bugs me about Twitter.. It's essentially just another
walled garden. But that aside, maybe the model is cool, and a good way to
follow friends and acquaintances. So is anyone creating open/unwalled pub-sub
software that anyone can use on any server for a similar purpose?

------
axod
I just don't get twitter. I saw some idiot who wrote an article using twitter.
So of course each paragraph was 140 characters or less.

Just because you can use a tool to do something, doesn't mean you should.

IMHO, IM/IRC/email/blog all work far better for communication.

~~~
vlbrown
So, you saw one person use Twitter in a certain way, thought that way was
silly, drew a generalization to the entire service, and you decided you knew
everything abut it?

Someone uses the telephone to do telemarketing to try to sell you carpet and
from that you understand what the telephone is "for"?

IM/IRC/email/blog are all different - from each other and from Twitter. As is
the telephone. Or SMS. Or...

~~~
axod
ok. To clarify... I've seen many many articles showing how you can use twitter
to do X. When it just seems that there's already a far more suited way to do
X.

I'm sure it's sort of useful for some things for some people, but I can't see
it going mainstream.

------
justindz
Twitter has an extremely low barrier of entry and it's so off-the-cuff that
it's a great place to non-blog without cluttering your blog with stuff that's
less topically relevant or more random. I find that valuable, though I could
live without.

It's not terribly "social" for me yet as only one friend also has an account.
People have remarked before that if you live in the valley or work in certain
types of companies or communities then you'll get more activity (and,
potentially, more disturbance as well).

~~~
vlbrown
Make new friends. :)

------
bchandle
Try taking a look at part II of this:
[http://chimprawk.blogspot.com/2008/05/twitter-imagined-
ident...](http://chimprawk.blogspot.com/2008/05/twitter-imagined-identity-and-
flux.html)

(complements of HN a day or two ago)

Personally, I'm still not a user, but the conceptualization of Twitter as more
than a simple messaging service significantly raises its value in my eyes.

------
izaidi
Twitter is well suited to certain kinds of lifestyles, and pretty much useless
for others. I don't use it because none of my friends use it, and I find it
more cumbersome and limiting than other services, but if you run with a crowd
with which it's reached a critical mass it can be a useful tool for quick-hit
communication.

~~~
vlbrown
Some of us find that, as we use Twitter, we make new friends.

Not all of my friends need to be people I see (physically) just as not all of
the people, I see (physically) are my friends.

------
rrival
We're using twitter as a microblog for the latest info about priceadvance
(<http://twitter.com/priceadvance>). The twitter widget is sitting on
priceadvance.com. Easy way to keep users up to date without installing wp or
something custom.

------
vlbrown
Twitter is stories, vignettes, small slices of people lives.

Twitter is a 24-hour come-as-you-are blockparty. People come and go, talk and
listen. Some of them already know each other, many of them don't.

Twitter is lifestreaming, 140 characters at a time.

Twitter is quick updates, questions, answers. Twitter is "I've got a 2-hour
layover at SFO. Anyone want to grab coffee?"

Twitter is microblogging. Twitter is nanoblogging!

Twitter is writing practice. How much can you say in such a small space?

Twitter is a tool. Use it (or don't use it). As you use it more, you may come
to see its value to you. If you don't, that's alright too.

------
chuchurocka
i've been using twitter for a while now. I mainly use it to quickly mine my
friends for information, 'anyone know a good designer for cheap?', 'having
problems invoking a ruby method from a cron job', 'in LA, need good tacos, and
fast'.

------
thorax
Twitter is micro-LiveJournal.

------
girk
I find myself explaining to people why they should care about Twitter quite
often, so I recently wrote up a comprehensive blog post about it.

Twitter-Me This: <http://www.gee.ky/blog/2008/05/twitter-me-this.html>

My reasons include: Social Network, Keeping in Touch, Minutia Can Be
Meaningful, Mobile Chatroom, Information On-The-Go, Privacy Shield,
Accessibility, Forced Short-Form Communication, Pulse of the World, Proxy, and
Brand-Monitoring.

------
scooter53080
I personally don't. I like to listen to the 'This Week in Tech' podcast, and
those guys are obsessed with Twitter. I groan loudly every time the
conversation comes back to Twitter which is like every ten minutes or so. It
has almost become unbearable. Between that and TechChrunch, I've entered
backlash-mode on the service, and I have never even used it.

------
senthil_rajasek
its a non-intrusive way of sharing statuses.

~~~
the1pato
The status updates are sent to your phone/mobile device, though. Here you are,
reading news.YC, and _buzz_... Stephanie doesn't like what she just had for
lunch. That's not a little bit intrusive?

~~~
dr1ft
Ummm...Do you use twitter? That is wrong. If you want updates on your phone
then you can turn them on. If you don't then it is trivially easy to turn off
all phone updates or set it up so that you only get updates on your phone
during certain hours. That doesn't sound intrusive to me.

------
tlrobinson
The importance of Twitter is hugely overblown in the web/software geeks
circles, and virtually no one outside has ever heard of it, and probably will
never care.

Facebook encompasses Twitter's functionality too, but no one really uses the
status updates like they do with Twitter.

~~~
cstejerean
The problem is Facebook's status updates are not accessible, for either
reading or writing, outside of Facebook (at least it used to be true, I
deleted my Facebook account a while back). This changes the way people use it.

------
paul9290
At 1st Twitter seems so stupid, but time and users have shown otherwise! It's
a substitute txt messenger, a way to instantly survey the crowd, a journal of
your life and great for researchers, marketers/branders, as well for
emergencies!

------
vlbrown
Interesting that the question "What do you find that you like about Twitter?"
is being answered here as "it's intrusive, you shouldn't use it." This isn't
about "personal preferences". It's "Why __should__ I care about Twitter."

------
mattjung
Twitter frees Blogs from all unimportant and trivial stuff like "i arrived at
SF", "i unpacked my new iPhone", "i'm back from vacation" etc. and thus
separates personal stuff from the actual topics of a Blog.

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pierrefar
It's where the net's pulse is at the moment.

<sidenote>Who knows where the pulse will be in a few months time. Everything
changes so quickly.</sidenote>

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puneetx
Twitter is like sex - <http://michaelmartine.com/2008/04/11/twitter-is-like-
sex/>

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luct
You shouldn't care, but if you want to use it, use it. But, with most things,
don't put it down until you try it.

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hwork
AIM Away Messages for Geeks.

~~~
krschultz
That is EXACTLY what it is. It just pushes AIM away messages around. Just add
song lyrics aimed at your ex-girlfriend and you have AOL circa 2002 in a
"social network" of high school kids. The only reason I would want to use it
is for mass texting, i.e. Want to meet for lunch? type messages. For that a
better feature would be grouping on your cell phone.

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ryanmahoski
twitter: celebrating character restriction since 2006

~~~
xugglybug
sms: celebrating character restriction since 1992

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thomasswift
it is like a simpler IM

