Comments on: Twitter and groan: new sounds in new media

By: paul

paul — Sat, 02 May 2009 13:16:05 +0000

hi Grant - this video might help explain the groaning...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALbH63Ali9U

By: Alain Breillatt

Alain Breillatt — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:13:57 +0000

I would propose that we groan at Twitter because most of us look at the communication vehicle it is and wonder what all the fuss is about. It’s not confusion, it’s tired recognition of a pattern where the nattering nabobs and masses are excitedly chattering about the latest fad. Wow, you can now broadcast your thoughts out to a vast internet and mobile audience 140 characters at a time. Great! Yet another communications infrastructure that is at the same time dumbing down the tenor of our conversations. Once upon a time we had deep thoughts delivered under careful consideration in well written correspondence. I am part of the mobile computing generation so I’ve helped make all of this happen. But where does it end? So you’re tweeting – who cares? I don’t recall people walking around saying, “Look, I’m sending out email!” The closest I can come is when people used to excitedly say, “I’m calling long distance” over the telephone back in the middle of last century. But the margin of difference between the cost and the truly revolutionary nature of what long distance voice communications delivered vs. one more way to textually broadcast your thoughts to the world – there’s a huge gap there.

We groan because we JUST DON’T CARE.

By: Scott Ellington

Scott Ellington — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:28:28 +0000

Perhaps the groan issues from the gut of those of us who are simply over-the-hill in a line-of-sight virtual universe. http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/655

By: Bram

Bram — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 22:48:23 +0000

An Op-Ed in the NYT about puns from a couple weeks back. It is well-written, but not as insightful as I’d hoped: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/opinion/28Tartakovsky.html?scp=1&sq=pun%20opinion&st=cse

And I’m agreement that the groan comes from Twitter’s overexposure — if I hear one more peep about tweeting ….

By: Scott Ellington

Scott Ellington — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:03:15 +0000

ers per thought; as though this NEW thing is actually an IMPROVEMENT over roundly articulated commu

By: MEL

MEL — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:45:57 +0000

I think people groan because of technology fatigue. I’ve mastered email, I read blogs, I’m on Facebook, now I have to Twitter in 140 charact

By: Alan

Alan — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 10:30:52 +0000

What would Tweety Bird tweet?

I tot I taw a puddy cat! I did. I did tee a puddy cat. Gwanny, help, help …

What would Sylvester the Cat tweet?

He wouldn’t. He’s not signed on to Twitter.

What is needed is a channel not for puns but for … wit! I would call it Titter.

But wit that elicits a titter (even an honest laugh or chuckle) is of a kind that never elicits a groan. What is the difference?

The victim of all this (that?) is originality. We think we spot it but it turns out to be imitation.

Ultimately, only Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley would be messaging on Titter, and occasionally Henry Morgan and Peggy Cass. And the much missed George Carlin.

Everyone else … just listen!

By: Henri Weijo

Henri Weijo — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 04:34:33 +0000

I think the “groan” part is largely due to the current overexposure and media hype it’s getting. I can’t even watch an NBA game anymore without getting mentioned that Shaq is, if fact, tweeting. Mark Cuban too! And the way Twitter is being talked about in keynotes reminds me of what happens whenever Malcolm Gladwell publishes a new book: “Brands should look to reach a TIPPING POINT (get it? TIPPING POINT!!)” or “Your business should BLINK more (see what I just did there?)”. Twitter has become almost a similar mandatory namedrop in marketing circles today, that’s why people groan, at least initially.

I’m a bit worried at how Twitter is shaping business discourse. To me it’s more of a circle jerk (sorry for the coarse language) or a beatnik drum circle than an actual conversation. It’s all about novelty now, being the first to “break” a story or retweet what a superstar tweeter said. And don’t get me started on the overuse of “clever” quotes.

I was a bit taken aback when some time ago that big skyscraper in China burnt down, and people were buzzing that “this is so cool, none of the big networks have anything on it, but Twitter has the story! this is really the power of social media”. It’s making us into mini-paparazzo or something.

PS. Agreed with Jordi =)

By: Domen

Domen — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 02:07:50 +0000

You make a very good point, but I would also add a more mundane explanation. Part of the groan can also be attributed to the overload of information ABOUT Twitter. The social media craze seems to have peaked with T. Plus it’s a pretty annoying word when repeated again, and again, and again… Here Twitty, Twitty…

By: Jordi

Jordi — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:26:31 +0000

Why do we groan at Twitter? Because those that “tweet” don’t stop “tweeting”. Nothing stays personal. Moments are by default public. Private moments now come through choice and effort. As you said, Twitter takes this to the extreme.

My problem with Twitter is that there is no alternative. Twitter is the end-all be-all of “Twittering” or “tweeting”.

You can YouTube or Hulu. You can search via Yahoo! or Google. You can use Blogger or WordPress. But Twitter has a monopoly on “micro-blogging”. This scares me.