help me understand twitter

[rh71]

It's great for following narrow interests. For instance you're a fan of an NFL team. You follow the team's beat writer, who often posts tidbits and opinions that don't make it into articles. You follow certain 'superfans' who seem better informed than most and make interesting posts.

If you're just following @AP and reading random replies, you're doing it wrong.

I get that - I follow my team too but when something like a trade happens I want to see what people are replying with also. If I'm doing that, I am reading the same headline over and over just looking for the little bit of added comment and it's a waste of time. Either automatically hide the headline tweet in replies or don't let people reply at all (retweet is ok) if it's really just RSS.

 

[rh71]

I can't believe there's no option to sort your News Feed by most recent first. Well I think there is, but it does not work at all even though that's what mine is set to. My News Feed "mostly" sorted that way, but not really. WTF? And it's always been like this so I guess they don't intend on making it work right.

I think it's to get people to keep coming back on the same day - they have a greater chance of seeing things they didn't see before if it's somewhat randomized. If it's chronological and you have like 100 friends, maybe only 5-10 of them post anything on a given day and you'd never go back that often. Page visits = ad revenue.

As for the thumbs-up likes, it's a way for people to acknowledge your post/pic. Not everyone likes to have their thoughts for everyone else to see, but they still want to acknowledge it's awesome. Of course, by hitting like, it's also a way for FB to gather data about you.

 

[sm625]

Twitter is a completely useless site. You could spend two hours reading 100 pages worth of words, and be no more informed than you would be had you spent that two hours twittling your thumbs. Compare that to two hours spent reading actual articles containing actual information. Or better yet, an actual book!

Twitter isnt even useful for tracking real world events, because the site is so badly organized, actually its not organized at all. So you have no way to establish any type of chronology. Like I said, completely and totally useless. It is there so that the dumbed down morons who couldnt even use a computer 20 years ago now at least can look like they know what they are doing.

 

[purbeast0]

Twitter is a completely useless site. You could spend two hours reading 100 pages worth of words, and be no more informed than you would be had you spent that two hours twittling your thumbs. Compare that to two hours spent reading actual articles containing actual information. Or better yet, an actual book!

Twitter isnt even useful for tracking real world events, because the site is so badly organized, actually its not organized at all. So you have no way to establish any type of chronology. Like I said, completely and totally useless. It is there so that the dumbed down morons who couldnt even use a computer 20 years ago now at least can look like they know what they are doing.

clearly the problem is you.

 

[TwiceOver]

I don't care enough to figure it out.

Same with Reddit. Most poorly laid out forum ever and everybody fucking loves it.

 

[tynopik]

I get that - I follow my team too but when something like a trade happens I want to see what people are replying with also.

No, just no

That's what the team forums/message boards are for.

Only use twitter to follow a select few, not try to determine what the masses think, that's not what it's built for

 

[rh71]

No, just no

That's what the team forums/message boards are for.

Only use twitter to follow a select few, not try to determine what the masses think, that's not what it's built for

I flip through twitter (widget) on my phone while sitting on the crapper - that's what it's for also right? I'm not more likely to go load a message board and navigate here and there and login/reply on my phone - it's cumbersome. All the replies are right there already if I simply click the entry - twitter just has a crappy way of organizing it all and that's what this thread is about.

If it wasn't built for it, why did they build it in? You mentioned RSS already - this is clearly intended to be more than that. I think you're saying the same thing - practically it's terrible at it and shouldn't be used for that reason.

 

[kranky]

Here is why I don't understand. If you tweet a message, isn't there a good chance it will just get lost in the sea of other new tweets?

Sending an email seems to make as lot more sense...a streaming news ticker is a stupid way to communicate anything important.

Here's the difference.

From your comment, it's clear that YOU have the recipients in mind when you communicate something - you want a message to be heard and understood. FB and Twitter users tend to say things only because they feel like it, with almost no regard for whether anyone sees it or cares.

 

[Imp]

I use twitter for celebrity stalking. Same with Instagram.

Live-tweeting is interesting though -- only with celebrities.