Anti-Twitter

Posted on by Ron Shevlin

I’ve been pondering a profound question [for the past 30 seconds, anyway]:

What do you call someone who Twitters?”

I can think of one answer…but I’m not sure I want to tick off a whole lot of people by saying it publicly.

I don’t really get why this has become so popular (but then again, most of the people I interact with are over 30 and have jobs). So don’t expect me to put a Twitter box on my blog. I can address the question of “what am I doing” once, in this post, because, quite frankly, the answer doesn’t change all that frequently:

I’m at WORK, working. THAT’s what I’m doing. And for your sake, the sake of your co-workers, and the sake of your company — quit twittering and get back to work yourself. Or get a job. Whatever.

Jeff Larche opined that Twitter’s ultimate popularity will be with younger students and “people with plenty of time….and a high opinion of their own text-messaged voices.” God help us if the latter is a large market.

Technorati tags:

13 thoughts on “Anti-Twitter”

  1. What do you call someone who PAYS ATTENTION to a Twitterer? Hmmmm…….how did Ron KNOW I’m on a run? I think he secretly wants to twitter — but is content to stalk others.

    I got an email from one of the boyz at http://www.opensourcecu.com inviting me to Twitter. Who doesn’t love that name???? At first I didn’t get it. And I DO have a job AND I’m over 40! But then it got me. It’s a virtual watercooler. I’m self-employed (NOT unemployed) and sometimes I like to just “shoot the breeze” with folks.

    I own my own time — the “man” doesn’t own me from 9 to 5! So I can Twitter away all hours of the day.

    Okay — I get lonely! There, I said it. Ron, won’t you Twitter with me? It really doesn’t take as long as it does to blog….and in between thinking up the 2 X 2 of the day and reading Forrester Reserach till your eyes bleed it might be a nice diversion for you.

  2. 1) Twitterer was NOT the name I was thinking of. Shorter, 4 letters.
    2) What do you call someone who pays attention to a Twitterer? Um… pervert?
    3) Is Ron content to stalk others? Maybe (see #2).
    4) I had thought that the boyz at OSCU were really cool, but upon hearing this… well, see #2.
    5) My boss has read my blog in the past, so in case he reads this…. yes, the “man” owns me. Or whatever he wants to believe.
    6) Of course it doesn’t take as long as it does to blog…good blogging is hard to do. Twittering is diarrhea of the brain.
    7) I won’t Twitter. The real reason: I’m scared of becoming one of the people that Jeff describes as “having a high opinion of their own text-messaged voices.”

  3. How’s this for scary? I’m considering going to the dark side.

    As I’ve dug deeper, I can’t resist the potential recruitment implications of Twitter, especially since my company recruits a very young, very tech-oriented group. It’s important to understand the platforms my potential recruits are using. My hope is to keep the circle of fellow experimenters small, so the din of messages passed is minimized.

    I only pray that I will resist the verbal diarrhea trap, because I’m with you, Ron. It’s a slippery slope to becoming a real Twit. 😉

  4. That’s cool.

    Here’s the only part of the post that bothers me: the “I’m at WORK, working. THAT’s what I’m doing. And for your sake, the sake of your co-workers, and the sake of your company — quit twittering and get back to work yourself. Or get a job. Whatever.” I chalk that up to the cranky in you. 🙂

    I don’t feel like I’m ever off the clock. I’m at the office for 10 hours a weekday or so, but really I do a good bit of work outside that. My best work is probably not done behind my desk. The kind of work that keeps the paychecks coming, that is. And my employer is more focused on results than analyzing the timecard. So when I’m “at work” mixing in a little fun (10 seconds out of every hour making a tweet, maybe 50 seconds out of the hour reading other tweets) keeps me sane. And it’s arguably more productive than getting up, walking to the water cooler, and talking about Dancing With The Stars for five minutes.

    I won’t venture a guess at Twitter’s half-life. I do know it’s got a lot of growing left in it before we start talking about it like the cool kids are talking about MySpace today. Will I be twittering tomorrow? Don’t know. I never visit Second Life anymore (doesn’t mean I don’t see some pretty cool business application there).

    It’s just all part of one really huge conversation. Twitter is an hors douvres tray. Blogs are a buffet line.

  5. I’m OK w/ your decision, Jeff. It just forces me to segment the people who use Twitter. On one hand are the people who you refer to as Twits, and on the other will be the users like yourself: the Witts. And Trey, while your “cranky” observation is probably spot-on accurate, I can’t help but feel like you took that post WAY too seriously.

  6. Nah, I put the smiley in there to show that! I liked the post – even if I did take it semi-seriously.

    Come on and be my twitterbuddy. http://twitter.com/creeme. You can see my thoughts on The Price Is Right this morning and what I ate for lunch!

    Sadly, I’m serious. Now, back to work.

  9. Ron…Just wait until our wives figure twitter out…don’t laugh, we will all be twittering. Actually…I am pretty sure that I already do…my wife calls my cell phone like 10 times a day. “Where are you…what are you doing…what are you thinking…what do you want for dinner…etc. I am just waiting for a cell phone company that just reports to her where I am and what I am doing. I will pay extra for features like the ones that will lie for me when I am at the Golf Course or out enjoying a cigar and silence.

  10. Stacy — I can assure you that my wife will NEVER twitter. When I told her about this thing (and let me preface this by saying that she generally could care less about this tech-weenie kind of stuff), her reaction was “who the hell has time to do THAT?” I’m quite sure that she does NOT want to know what I’m doing every second of the day. — Ron

  12. Pingback: Digital Solid: Marketing Technology ROI » Twitter’s sudden celebrity will soon become a fight for relevance

  13. Pingback: I’m A Twit « Marketing ROI: Whims from Ron Shevlin

Comments are closed.