A couple of weeks ago I reluctantly signed up for Facebook. Now I'm trying Twitter (username: robert_velarde). I'm considering both moves on my part philosophy of technology experiments.
Both Facebook and Twitter are strange worlds. But I suppose there are some positive aspects to each. Self-absorption, though, is not one of them. To quote Thoreau, however, "I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well."
As a Christian, I struggle daily to keep myself Christ-centered, as well as "other"-centered, rather than self-centered. These "social networking" tools don't seem to help much in that regard.
What do you think? Facebook and Twitter: useful, useless, or what?
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
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7 comments:
I find Facebook fascinating in the connections that it allows. I can talk to long lost friends, I can talk to relatives, and professional contacts. I like it and I think it is good to be connected.
Twitter I could bury with the dog bone. Unfortunately, if your dog is like mine, he will dig it up again so that is a bad metaphor.
I do not like it because it is very self centered. I am ... does anyone really read it? I believe it is more of a voyeristic thing and we sign in to see what others are doing and feel obligated to share what we are doing in return. No thanks.
I can't motivate myself to even try out Twitter. I think the Facebook "status updates" is the closest I'll get.
A friend of mine found this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeLZCy-_m3s
I think that says it all. :)
Both Facebook and Twitter are tools. If you find them useful--and this indicates that those with whom you want to interact also find them useful--then use them.
I find Twitter less than compelling, but moderately useful from time to time. Facebook is more of a fun way to connect with people, but not super powerful.
~Luke
Thanks, all, for the comments. Hilarious video, Jeff. I'm still finding Twitter quite odd, but have found Facebook helpful in connecting with old friends.
I find Facebook unvaluable at best (and rather scary privacy-wise), but quite enjoy Twitter. Twitter doesn't pretend to have privacy (aside from the Protected Timeline option), its social connections are merely subscriptions to the notices of others you find interesting, and in certain corners of the Twitter universe there is a fun and useful idea storm with some short discussion going on. As a technologist, it lets me keep my finger somewhat on the pulse of what is happing in the tech and open source realms.
Plus, there have been times when I've thrown questions or difficulties out on Twitter and received answers from people that don't even follow me. It seems to be where the old Lazyweb concept is actually able to function well.
A few months ago I started my Faceboom experience. I soon found people from an almost forgotten past. My first emotion was one of euphoria, but soon I got fed up with Facebook. It's a kind of surrogate contact format that suplies a list of sterile and out of context statements of people's lifes half of whom you hardly know. Now, when people contact me, I wish they would simply send me emails in stead of forcing me to log in in order to reply to their messages.
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