Still on Fence w/Twitter

WARNING!  I just read through this post before posting it...and it is very random..my thoughts didn't really mesh well!  lol!


I had a Twitter account several years ago.  I stopped using it because I was being followed by all these people that I had no idea who they were and it bothered me.  Not sure why, it just did.  It's like on Facebook, if I don't know you, I won't accept a friend request from you.  And I don't go through my high school yearbook and "friend" my whole graduating class (like several people I know).  It shouldn't matter how many friends or followers you have.

I had to get that out there!  I am a person that uses facebook to follow my family and friends news and ramblings.  I don't use it to meet people and talk to strangers.

I have never really understood the whole Twitter thing though.  Like I said, I tried it: didn't like it.  And now for my multimedia journalism class we are required to have an account.  So far I have followed news people.  CNN, Everett Herald, New York Times (NYT), David Carr (writer for NYT), Anderson Cooper...and alot more I can't remember right now.  I am also following my editors from the Clipper and a few of my multimedia classmates.

It's crazy how many tweets the NYT puts out there in an hour or two!  Good lord!  They take up half of my "tweets" from people!  And all they say are brief little phrases with a link to a story.  And half of them are stories that I honestly don't care about.  Which, being a journalist, I should.

Alot of the news stories that these people are tweeting about are breaking news or new updates on old stories.  So I understand why they are important to get out there, people need to hear about these things.  I think that is the only good thing about Twitter, si that it is updated alot more than an actual news website and such.

But then you have to think about all the random people and the celebrities that use Twitter and are just spewing stuff about how they just drank a coke...or they are going to a party to get wasted...or other such things and...who cares?  And all the people that tweet something and than it causes a national controversy.  I just am not sure if Twitter is right for me.  I like my Facebook.

I think part of why I am on the fence about Twitter is because, unlike most of the people that use Twitter, my phone is lame and doesn't do internet.  So I have to be on a computer in order to check out the latest on Twitter and so when I check it, everything is old news and there is lot of it.  And when I do go on Twitter, it's maybe once a day and I never really have any breaking news of my own to share.  And there is really never anything that I feel worthy enough to re-tweet either...I have had Twitter for a week or so...and I have made five tweets...three-four of which were re-tweeting something...

I don't knwo...we'll see how it goes...but right now I don't think that I will stay on Twitter after this class is over.