I'm now on Twitter. If you're one of the people who have heard of Twitter and you're terrified that it will be the new Facebook which is the new MySpace, then please calm down, this is not the case. No-one is going to leave Facebook to join Twiter, they are not the same thing. Facebook has statuses, photos, videos, applications, comments, wallposts, private messages, groups, pages and all the rest, and I think it's safe to say it's here to stay.
Twitter, however, is only about status updates. Now before you dismiss it as pointless saying "but Facebook already does that", reseat yourself and allow me to explain. The main thing about the conceot of being on Twiter is that it's purely one-way. Facebook is two-way; if you want to connect with someone you request to become their friend and if and only if they recipricate, the connection is formed. On Twitter, you choose to 'follow' people, which means their updates appear in your feeds when you log in, but they don't have to accept you and in turn receive your updates. For example if I want to receive Stephen Fry's updates, why would he want to receive mine, along with the thousands of other people following him?
It was this concept that led to me signing up. It was a post on Dave Gorman's blog about how a couple of people had sent him messages saying he was rude not to follow them, when they had followed him. He explained to them that it would be pointless for him to follow the thousands of people following him, as it would be impossible to take in so much information and he wouldn't be able to actually keep track on the people he specifically wanted to. These people were seriously offended by this and said that he should be polite, even if he wasn't going to actually read the updates. So apparently they would prefer it if he admitted that he was never going to read their updates, just so they could add one to their number of followers, like the MySpace culture. In my opinion, MySpace has its place - mainly for musicians, groups, bands, singers, DJs and such. It was only being used by people because Facebook wasn't here yet.
MySpace isn't for me, but Facebook and Twitter are. Facebook is for almost everyone. Twitter isn't for everyone, because a lot of people don't have anything interesting to post. I hate those statuses on Facebook: "...is having a pizza", "...is bored", "...is popping in the shower" - WHY BOTHER!?
However, there are genuinely interesting and/or witty people out there who are on Twitter. Whether I am interesting and/or witty is up to you and it is your decision whether to follow me or not. One of the things I like is that I can have my updates shown in the sidebar of this website, so it's not just my Twitter followers that will see them, but my website and blog readers. These are some of the people I'm following:
- NASA
- UK Parliament
- Stephen Fry
- Jimmy Carr
- Dave Gorman
- Google Chrome
- Downing Street
- MC Lars
- Richard Branson
These are some of the people following me:
- UK Parliament (hmm)
- Cheryl Cole (hmm)
- Bender (a fan-made Futurama tribute)
- The Real Alan Partridge (fan-made)
I watched a TV Quiz show hosted by Chris Moyles the other night because Stephen Fry was one of the guests. I'd seen on his Twitter a few days before that he would be appearing, and he had asked his followers what sort of quiz it was, and his worries of being useless in the quiz due to being away travelling the world filming a documentary were confirmed by people's replies and he posted saying it was about recent popular culture, and he replied saying:
"...Oh dear I've been away for months & don't read newspapers. I'm dead"
Then during the show, when it was his turn to take the main chair and do the quiz, Chris called him over (I'm paraphrasing):
Chris M: Up next, Stephen ... Stephen! ... Stephen!! STEPHEN! What are you doing? Are you on Twitter!?
Stephen F: Yes, sorry...
And then he put down his mobile phone and joined Chris at the front. At one point Chris asked him who would win between him and Stephen Hawking at a 'clever-off', which Fry humbly said Hawking was cleverer than he.
Speaking of Hawking - today I happened upon the Telegraph's Top 100 Living Geniuses in which I was surprised to see they've listed Matt Groening (creator of The Simpsons and Futurama) higher than Stephen Hawking. Not sure how that happened, but there are some other odd choices in the list too. I have to say that Tim Berners-Lee deserves the top spot (maybe equal with Larry Page & Sergey Brin (founders of Google)). I'm not sure why Osama Bin Laden is in there. And I think J.K. Rowling ought to be higher as she probably inspired millions of kids to start reading. This table was made up of a survey of 4,000 Britons and based on the following criteria: paradigm shifting; popular acclaim; intellectual power; achievement and cultural importance.
My Twitter profile: twitter.com/Ben_Nuttall