Twitter - How many fishes use it?

[Tony Lockhart]

I’m on Twitter, and so is my wife. She is almost invisible on there, and only uses it to follow a few slebs.
I use it quite a bit, but the most useful feature has been the ease of which I can talk to someone at BT, TV licensing etc to sort a mountain of work out for my parents. Messaging is better than calling by phone, but if a call is subsequently needed, they call me. I honestly wouldn’t want to be without it.

And Boy George follows me after we argued about the police lol. And I once had a heated discussion with Chuck Yeager because I’d finally had enough of his anti-Brit stance. He’s dead, I’m alive, so I won eventually.

 

[monkfish]

I’m on Twitter, and so is my wife. She is almost invisible on there, and only uses it to follow a few slebs.
I use it quite a bit, but the most useful feature has been the ease of which I can talk to someone at BT, TV licensing etc to sort a mountain of work out for my parents. Messaging is better than calling by phone, but if a call is subsequently needed, they call me. I honestly wouldn’t want to be without it.

And Boy George follows me after we argued about the police lol. And I once had a heated discussion with Chuck Yeager because I’d finally had enough of his anti-Brit stance. He’s dead, I’m alive, so I won eventually.

Your win will be a draw, eventually.

 

[farfromthesun]

If used properly it is a very useful source of information, for a variety of things. The aforementioned death metal cats, music (I get the heads up on new stuff, limited stuff, etc) that I just wouldn't have the time to find otherwise, politics and current events - reporting of various things is almost instantaneous. If you curate who you follow carefully then there is absolutely no doubt that it's a magnificent tool. With an abundance of privacy controls, ability to filter (or "ignore") words, phrases, users, you can have a source of information that's tailor made to your requirements. Understand that people can't be bothered to put the effort in with getting set up but I am of the view that dismissing it out of hand "because Twitter" is somewhat ignorant to what it can offer.

I am https://twitter.com/farfromthesun

 

[paulfromcamden]

And Boy George follows me

It's weird who follows you on Twitter. I just checked and I'm being followed by Greenwich NHS CCG.

 

[Tony L]

I’m twitter.com/pinkfishmedia, as one would expect, though as stated upthread, I haven’t got round to posting anything yet. I’m just building up a lot of mainly political people and entities to follow at present and finding it all very useful and entertaining. I use Facebook for all the music and arts stuff. I’ll maybe get to posting at some point, but pfm is obviously my home platform so where my time is spent writing stuff.

 

[Big Tabs]

I’m using Twitter increasingly more and find it pretty much essential to find out what is going on politically. I haven’t got to the stage of posting yet, but it is now my main news counterpoint to BBC, Sky etc as I can follow politicians, journalists and activists directly without having to suffer any editorial filter beyond my own preference. It also facilitates a far more global perspective and I’ve certainly learned huge amounts about American politics in the past six months or so. I still very much view myself as a newbie, but I spend hours a day digging stuff of interest up.

Obviously it is way more than politics, it is just as useful for science, art or pretty much anything as it is just a way of connecting directly to sources of interest without waiting for the BBC to make a documentary in three years time or whatever, e.g. if you are interested in say CERN follow them directly and keep up with events in real-time. It is an amazing resource.

PS I am obviously hoping Elon Musk fails in his take-over bid!

I do get that, especially the fresh of the press politics. It is a useful medium for many folk.

For some part, for me, it is just that I haven’t got enough space in my head for all those words.
Makes for too much think, when I hardly have any think in the first place.

 

[Big Tabs]

Ok but it’s self-exclusion, there’s nothing elitist about Twitter. If you’re getting enough public debate from older media there’s no real point following the threads you’re complaining about.

I am not complaining. I find the phenomenon of twitter of mild interest. It is of also of mild interest what makes a person want to use it. I think it provides quite different things to the wide variety of people that use it.

 

[Jamie]

I have an account, but don't post anything. Just browse stuff now and again, but not often.

 

[Marchbanks]

Maybe my views are coloured by my (1) distrusting all politicians (professional or otherwise) implicitly and (2) finding party politics as boring as hell.

 

[Tony Lockhart]

It is of also of mild interest what makes a person want to use it. I think it provides quite different things to the wide variety of people that use it.

It’s a tool. Different people can and will use it in different ways. Some check-in once a week, others are on it continually. It’s like asking what people can use their smartphones for…

 

[Big Tabs]

It’s a tool. Different people can and will use it in different ways. Some check-in once a week, others are on it continually. It’s like asking what people can use their smartphones for…

I see it in a different way.
There is an emotional aspect. Yes, it is a tool, but my interest is in the types/characters of people using the device, and for what myriad reasons. Not twitter per se

 

[gintonic]

I might be on Twitter, and I might be a prolific poster.

I have a PhD student analysing postings using machine learning to identify bots and fake news.

I am on fb for local news

 

[Big Tabs]

Maybe my views are coloured by my (1) distrusting all politicians (professional or otherwise) implicitly and (2) finding party politics as boring as hell.

100% agree with #1

I find party and world politics interesting.
So does The Wife.

 

[Seanm]

Maybe my views are coloured by my (1) distrusting all politicians (professional or otherwise) implicitly and (2) finding party politics as boring as hell.

If it helps, despite being obsessed with Twitter most politicians and political journalists hate it because it enables ordinary members of the public to mock them. There’s a dark side to that of course, with some politicians receiving lots of abuse and threats, but mostly it’s quite funny. I think it’s been instrumental in revealing how stupid most members of our professional political class are, pundits especially.

 

[canonman]

It's weird who follows you on Twitter. I just checked and I'm being followed by Greenwich NHS CCG.

I have a celeb who had a prog on TV this week. She is very friendly!

 

[bor]

I often follow links to Twitter, but don't completely understand the mechanics of it...

However, curating links to a limited number of twitterers sound dangerously close to curating an echo chamber.

And as with all social media, you are reading heavily filtered content, with no fact checking for veracity.

It also defines populism. Writing what you feel your audience want to hear rather than what they should hear, in order to get retweets, likes, etc.

Like all social media, I'm convinced it can be benign/positive/helpful, but that comes with the price of all the manipulative shit.

Please hit subscribe if you like this post.

 

[matt j]

In my experience you have to treat twitter with a large pinch of salt, even respected journalists/commentators can be guilty of retweeting utter bull shit or out of date stories that fit a current narrative. I don't follow any news or political stuff, it just finds its way into my feed anyway.

 

[PsB]

I am unable to read them. A pop up thing asks me to join to continue reading.

I haven't joined Twitter, but when the pop-up pops up, I choose the subscribe/join option or whatever it's called, which takes me to another pop-up page that is conveniently equipped with a X box on the top RH corner. I click that and can then browse the Twitter thread uninterrupted. This is with Firefox.
EDIT: the button I click on is actually "Connect"

 

[dan m]

Yes. Very useful for following current research related to my work.

 

[matthewr]

Maybe my views are coloured by my (1) distrusting all politicians (professional or otherwise) implicitly and (2) finding party politics as boring as hell.

You can completely avoid news and politics if you want. Indeed, it's not a bad idea as much of the toxicity that plagues the platform comes from news and politics.

Generally, you want to find people and organisations you trust and cultivate your own feed of things you are interested in. Avoid the front page and trending tags. Used this way it's a great way to hear direct from subject matter experts, avoid media filters and generally apply editorial control to one of the ways you keep in touch with the world in the areas that interest you.

Personally, je ne spaghetti rien.