Buy In, Sell Out
It seems our friends next door (literally) have been up to a few things lately, and I’m not just talking about painting their office blue.
I happened to peruse the University of Oregon College Democrats’ latest twitter posts, and wouldn’t you know it they posted 14 quotes from Obama’s speech to Congress from Sept. 9th.
If the College Democrats wished to assess the man’s speech, they have a tool–their very own blog. By re-posting Obama’s quotations on their twitter feed, the Dems have essentially endorsed anything that comes out of the man’s mouth. It’s the equivalent of editing your “favorite quotes” on Facebook.
I shouldn’t really be surprised though. I suppose the nature of the organization lends itself to participating in such acts. And, of course, its members will probably tell me that they only joined the College Democrats because it offered them the best overall utility for their political views–borrowing from what game theorists refer to as “sophisticated voting”.
Even so, one wonders what it’s like to be that kind of cog, spewing political policy without ever levying rationed, unbiased judgment before passing it along to the masses as acceptable.
In any case, if the College Democrats wished to truly voice their sincere, honest and complete opinions one would hope they would do more than just tweet recycled Obama quotes. From what I’ve been told, the members don’t always agree with everything the Democratic Party has to say. Let’s see it.
Until then, gobble gobble.
An anti-social networking site.
They call that “Stormfront”.
Tim, that is completely rational. And, truth be told (sorry Bill), I sometimes wish there was a Bill mute button on Twitter, because some days he’s just telling us all everything about too much.
It’s not unlike the problem I have with Facebook and my mom. I can’t go back there and say or do a single thing without her pouncing on it within five minutes.
Basically what I’m saying is, I want a social networking site that no one else uses. An anti-social networking site.
Dan – how do you feel about my refusal to adopt twitter simply because Bill likes it too much? I feel like I can’t let him win again.
Well, yeah, the whole celebrity/journalist/everybody jumping in aspect is pretty stupid. But that’s not all it is. Personally, I ignore all that, protect my updates, and use it to maintain a very slow, free-flowing conversation with about 8-12 people who I would never otherwise keep up with daily because they live… everywhere.
So, see, this is useful and unpointless. Which is why I get my back up when people just crap on it based on the most vacuous, most noticed use of what is basically just a medium.
That is all.
Nice cheat there Danimal … having to use a hack around the limitations of the twitter service. Too bad I stopped listening / following after the first 140 chars …
Again, my biggest complaint is that twitter is not really new technology, yet people treat it as if it is. What is so different between someone who follows you on twitter, and someone who is on your instant message buddy list? It’s IRC (an OLD chat program) applied to cell phones.
The reason its so popular is that news outlets, musicians, celebrities, etc have jumped on the bandwagon, so they can seem hip and cool. Its just like how a few years back everyone thought myspace was the coolest thing ever; once everyone and their mom got an account, service traffic dropped heavily. Twitter will eventually go the way of POGS – once it stops being a hip and niche technology -, and will just be another one of those things you look back on and wonder what the fuss was all about.
First 140:
Sure, but half or more of the comments here could fit within Twitter’s 140 character limit. Others could be broken up like this.
Second 140:
Look, Twitter, like anything, is just a medium. It is not Twitter’s fault that it gets used the way you describe.
Third 140:
Some of the smartest, wittiest things I’ve ever read were on Twitter. As with anything else, it’s wheat from chaff.
Fourth 140:
Blaming Twitter because idiots use it poorly is like picking on a comment board for the idiots who post “FRIST!”
Fifth 140:
Or on spray paint for tagging, or radio for Michael Savage, or jumbotrons for bad marriage proposals.
“Hey look! A bunch of folks commenting on a blog to crap on Twitter!”
Here’s the difference between a blog/message board and Twitter. Let’s use Vincent’s initial post as an example:
“I
That’s about enough of that.
I rly H8 Twttr … mkz me want 2 thro uP!!1
Undr 140 chars … Punkz!
Ba-ZING!
Hey look! A bunch of folks commenting on a blog to crap on Twitter!
Twitter is just today’s version of the citizen’s band radio craze of the 70s: People with “handles” they find clever broadcasting their personal drivel using a code they find even more clever (LOL! WTF?!) in the certain knowledge (or the desperate hope?) that someone out there will respond.
I once saw in this as someone’s signature line on some other site:
If brevity is the soul of wit, how does one explain twitter?
Someday admitting you once Twittered will be as damning as admitting you once wore bell-bottom jeans. Twitter haters are just ahead of the curve.
Does Colbert really require any apology?
Call me a Colbert apologist or whatever, but the term “twatting” is vastly more descriptive than “tweeting”.
Twitter is the dumbest technology out there today. It’s not revolutionary or new … Facebook had a “Status” tool (essentially the same thing) when they first opened up shop, and IRC before that allowed you to follow people and listen up with their comments.
It’s just another outlet of bored narcissm for an ADD-technocentric society.
Err, we used to listen to birds tweet when I was a child, 40 years ago.
In fact, large flocks of sparrows could be heard tweeting, all of the time.
😉
In addition to what Vincent said…
…it’s fucking Twitter.
The intellectual bankruptcy displayed by copying another person’s speech verbatim fits in perfectly with the vacuous nature of the medium chosen to deliver it. And while I’m on the subject, “tweeting” is the stupidest fake word ever invented, with the possible exception of various things associated with Beyonce.
I’m not sure anyone has ever accused the College Democrats of being anything but uncritical mouthpieces for the political party they take their namesake from.
I mean, isn’t that kind of the whole point?
One suspects that their disagreements with the Party are rooted more in progressive desire to see the Democrats utterly abandon any pretenses of centrism than anything resembling, say, the libertarian/classical liberal critique of the Republicans’ big-government tendencies and moralizing suck-ups to the religious right.