Re: Tweet This: I Don't Care

[Gadi Evron <ge () linuxbox org>]

On Mon, 16 Mar 2009, Rich Kulawiec wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 15, 2009 at 01:06:35AM -0700, Paul Ferguson wrote:
> > I already have a blog, which allows me to publish content in more than 140
> > characters.
> >
> > What is the allure? Please, tell me.
>
> Ah, it appeals directly to the "sound bite" crowd -- those who prefer
> information (including news) delivered to them in snippets, easily digested
> with the smallest cognitive effort.  These are people who reduce politics

Alright, I choose to accept your premise for the sake of discussion and 
continue from that point on, even though I believe you are doing what you 
accuse twitter users of doing. Gross mis-representation of the subject to 
ridiculous levels showing it to be a small portion of what it truly is.

Many would claim, and indeed claimed in the past, that a large part of the 
world's population is not very smart, or to put it differently, stupid.

Further, in the course of the last century, to quote Lawrence Lessig, 
beginning all the way back to the first days of the Radio, we've become a 
culture of RO rather than RW (if computer terminology for file 
permissions are to be used in analogy).

Since we assume twitter delivers to this specific crowd, which is the 
majority--it provides this majority and the people who would like to 
influence it with psoitive matter, encouraging thinking, a direct and 
easier way of doing so.

Ideas can be quickly shared across the entire community and discussed in 
thousands of "threads", showing examples, counter-examples, and new 
arguments. In fact, it takes the macro level in which we conduct our 
arguments and forces us to examine each argument on its own merit. From 
the evidence supporting it, through the inference (causality) and the 
warrant showing it to be valid, to the claim--the slogan which you believe 
twitter is about.

Twitter is a stream of thought, forced to be put into writing, and concise 
if you want to get your point across. I see it as a very positive change 
in the current way we handle slogans with this majority, which is start 
with the claim, the slogan, and stop there.

I still believe your premise is wrong, but as you can see even if we 
accept it, while your argument speaks to me personally it has no relevant 
to how twitter factually functions.

> to slogans and philosophy to bumper stickers.  They're largely incapable
> and/or unwilling of reading -- let alone writing -- anything substantive,
> cogent and nuanced.  These are the people for whom "Headline News" equates
> to "serious journalism", and whose attention span is so short that they
> require an "executive summary" for a one page document.
>
> And these are the people whose bloated egos are such that they imagine

While I accepted this line in an earlier reply, I am unsure why using one 
medium over another is any indication of a bloated ego, my bloated ego 
aside.

This is an ad hominem attack, which takes away from your earlier argument 
showing you have a personal dislike here. If it is indeed a matter of 
like, you are free to stay out of twitter, but I expected more.

> the rest of world is actually interested in their off-the-cuff random
> remarks.  Oh, there *are* a few -- very few -- people whose wit and
> intelligence are such that their odd musings are possibly of interest;
> but most of those people have the humility to realize that even their
> prose usually requires care in composition and editing before publication.

And Do you really believe that getting an idea across in 140 characters of 
less (or a continual message stream of 140 characters of less EACH) can 
get through and be concise enough to start a discussion and/or gather 
followers (or "friends" in other social networks) if it isn't well 
written?

It is today's best tutor of the English language for the masses, and boy, 
what we had so far has not really been working.

        Gadi.

> ---Rsk
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