So I created a Twitter account a couple weeks ago, initially to track someone posting comments about Locus Online, but mostly just to come up to speed with this form of online social media, as a publisher of an [online] website myself. Yes, I’m a couple years behind the times; but I try not to be *more* than a couple years behind the times.
I’ve quickly ‘followed’ over the past couple weeks some 300 fellow tweeters, and have been followed by 69 folks currently.
Comment 1: At least half of those 69 are folks I’ve never heard of, and have no idea why they would have seen my account and chosen to follow me. [This is not that much different than Facebook, where I have some 260 friends whom I’ve approved, and at least another 200 friend requests that I’ve ignored, since I have no idea who they are.]
Comment 2: I have a correspondent, a contributor to Locus Online, say about Twitter, “It’s responsible for the ongoing downfall of our civilization. I pity the necessity for you to follow it.” Obviously he is not on Twitter.
Comment 3: I think Twitter is like being in a convention party room, with dozens of people standing around holding conversations, and being able to follow all those conversations at once, more or less. It’s fun to follow, but if you walk out of the room to go elsewhere, you will miss these conversations, just as ignoring Twitter for a while means you will miss analogous tweets. I.e., you’re not necessarily missing anything important. You can’t follow everyone all the time. Life is short.
Comment 4: The best thing about Twitter is that you can follow folks who don’t need to approve you as ‘friends’, as on Facebook; thus I can follow Barack Obama, Ricky Gervias, and Wil Wheaton. And discover, through re-tweets (RT), fascinating, provocative people like @Anti_Intellect.
I think I’ve figured out how to embed Twitter posts in a blog post like this. Here are a couple examples that struck me in the past couple days (posting these mostly to see if these work).
The concept of sin is an attack on human existence. We are made to feel shame and guilt for being.
— Anti_Intellect (@Anti_Intellect) July 20, 2013
In homage to The Guardian, The New York Times has added a "Republican" button to its website. Press it to mute all science news.
— Ted Underwood (@Ted_Underwood) July 22, 2013
