Twittering fools?
Ok, again apologies for never bothering to update this thing. If any of you have stuck around, good work! I have no defence; I just never bother to think of it.
So, am back in the land of chicken and beer (ok, I may have some defence, I did relocate again!)
Actually have been here for months… so am well and truly entrenched.
Am working in an in-house gig, which comes with its own set of … challenges.
I was told in the interview, by my boss, that there were some “issues” that would need to be attended to – so figured almost immediately that I was to become Winston Wolfe.
The job has potential, great potential, but I fear my overwhelming desire to let my internal monologue run free and slap a few will see me undone!
Which is a long and convoluted intro in today’s random point. Am working with a group of people who are experts in digital comms. Some of them are bright and funny; some will be slapped; one appears to be a moody and humourless sort. I try to avoid that one as much as possible, as it’s just all too hard sometimes and they kinda scare me.
But, point, so digital comms etc. Everyone is signed up to Twitter and tweets like crazy.
Twitter, for those of you who similarly don’t care, is another digital social networking tool. All well and good, but these people tweet to each other in an open plan office and about complete shite!
Had a convo with one of the bods last week, when I was asked if I tweeted. My response “no, I have friends and they don’t need to know the minutiae of my day.” FFS, half the time the minutiae of my day bores the bejesus out of me, why would I assume anyone else would care?
I made an agreement with my folks, back when I started travelling that I would give them an update of where I was in the world if I crossed passport control and entered a new country. Admittedly this agreement was forged mostly because I had come back from a trip to Cambodia and been out of contact for about a week (I was in the jungle, so no phone access, no internet cafes… it wasn’t like I just blanked them) and my folks (bless) told me if I ever did that again that they would call the embassy! To be fair, I am quite bad at remembering to pass on flight details, and my travel plans invariably involve a flight in and very little else; as I rarely book anything firmly believing that to be cheating. However, this means when I send an update it’s usually meaningful. An email to say 40 people advising I’ve arrived in a new country… useful. Receiving a tweet from someone I work with, indeed sit next to, about something that’s happening 3 foot to the left of me. Not useful. And kinda weird, no?
The only reason I signed up to Facebook was because one of my friends said she would only do travel updates on her wall. And I can upload photos/videos to keep mates up to date – see for example this photo of the stellar ink work at 2008 Lollapalooza. You too may ask why. I do regularly!
But do I use Facebook to network socially? Couldn’t say I do. I talk to mates I would usually talk to anyway and share with the stuff I’d usually share. It’s an economy of scale tool, sure, but is it really social networking if you’re saying/doing what you would anyway to your regular audience or is it just business as usual in a slightly different format?
Case in point, I have just bullet proofed my profile (I think) to avoid randoms inviting me to be their friends. So, am in two minds about this “social networking” argument. When did social networking stop being about going to the pub and having a real time conversation?
Don’t get me wrong, I am not an advocate of meetings. Indeed am mostly dubious about people who like meetings, having worked for the teletubbie back in the day whose sole job appeared to be going to meetings, then coming back and dumping whatever she’d agreed to on my desk for me to do. And am one of those cubicle farm workers who emails people in the office rather than talking. So, I appreciate I’m being hypocritical to some degree.
No doubt at some stage I’ll sign up for Twitter, again proving that I’m not only slow to jump on the bandwagon but also easily swayed, but for the moment am very close to saying to my staff “stop boring each other witless and do your fcking jobs.”
So, am back in the land of chicken and beer (ok, I may have some defence, I did relocate again!)
Actually have been here for months… so am well and truly entrenched.
Am working in an in-house gig, which comes with its own set of … challenges.
I was told in the interview, by my boss, that there were some “issues” that would need to be attended to – so figured almost immediately that I was to become Winston Wolfe.
The job has potential, great potential, but I fear my overwhelming desire to let my internal monologue run free and slap a few will see me undone!
Which is a long and convoluted intro in today’s random point. Am working with a group of people who are experts in digital comms. Some of them are bright and funny; some will be slapped; one appears to be a moody and humourless sort. I try to avoid that one as much as possible, as it’s just all too hard sometimes and they kinda scare me.
But, point, so digital comms etc. Everyone is signed up to Twitter and tweets like crazy.
www.twitter.com
Twitter, for those of you who similarly don’t care, is another digital social networking tool. All well and good, but these people tweet to each other in an open plan office and about complete shite!
Had a convo with one of the bods last week, when I was asked if I tweeted. My response “no, I have friends and they don’t need to know the minutiae of my day.” FFS, half the time the minutiae of my day bores the bejesus out of me, why would I assume anyone else would care?
I made an agreement with my folks, back when I started travelling that I would give them an update of where I was in the world if I crossed passport control and entered a new country. Admittedly this agreement was forged mostly because I had come back from a trip to Cambodia and been out of contact for about a week (I was in the jungle, so no phone access, no internet cafes… it wasn’t like I just blanked them) and my folks (bless) told me if I ever did that again that they would call the embassy! To be fair, I am quite bad at remembering to pass on flight details, and my travel plans invariably involve a flight in and very little else; as I rarely book anything firmly believing that to be cheating. However, this means when I send an update it’s usually meaningful. An email to say 40 people advising I’ve arrived in a new country… useful. Receiving a tweet from someone I work with, indeed sit next to, about something that’s happening 3 foot to the left of me. Not useful. And kinda weird, no?
The only reason I signed up to Facebook was because one of my friends said she would only do travel updates on her wall. And I can upload photos/videos to keep mates up to date – see for example this photo of the stellar ink work at 2008 Lollapalooza. You too may ask why. I do regularly!
Sample of the tattoos in the crowd at Lollapalooza (John Butler set) 2008
But do I use Facebook to network socially? Couldn’t say I do. I talk to mates I would usually talk to anyway and share with the stuff I’d usually share. It’s an economy of scale tool, sure, but is it really social networking if you’re saying/doing what you would anyway to your regular audience or is it just business as usual in a slightly different format?
Case in point, I have just bullet proofed my profile (I think) to avoid randoms inviting me to be their friends. So, am in two minds about this “social networking” argument. When did social networking stop being about going to the pub and having a real time conversation?
Don’t get me wrong, I am not an advocate of meetings. Indeed am mostly dubious about people who like meetings, having worked for the teletubbie back in the day whose sole job appeared to be going to meetings, then coming back and dumping whatever she’d agreed to on my desk for me to do. And am one of those cubicle farm workers who emails people in the office rather than talking. So, I appreciate I’m being hypocritical to some degree.
No doubt at some stage I’ll sign up for Twitter, again proving that I’m not only slow to jump on the bandwagon but also easily swayed, but for the moment am very close to saying to my staff “stop boring each other witless and do your fcking jobs.”
Yellow Brick Road