Morning Edition, May 12, 2009 · At the risk of sounding like that old guy in Gran Torino telling those "young punks" to "get off my lawn," it's gotten to the point that whenever I hear somebody talking about Twitter or twittering or tweeting it just makes my little tummy want to hurl.
I haven't tweeted once in my life, but I'm sick of hearing about it already.
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Unlike Ridley, I gave both Twitter and Facebook a fair trial. I participated actively for over a month, making daily or more frequent entries on each interface. I compiled a long list of "friends" whose activities filled my page on each. I tweeted and I facebooked with the best of them.
Then I asked myself, Why? What is this adding to my life? In fact, each was mostly an excuse for doing something more rewarding or entertaining. I even have better escapes than these interfaces. So I quit.
At the same time, I quit even as I saw possible and occasional value in each interface. At the Hypertext 08 Conference in Pittsburg, for example, tweeters taking notes made me feel I was there. On Facebook, I connected with theater artists from the 80s I haven't talked to since then. The trouble with these interfaces is that these positive possibilities are lost in an avalanche of the trivial. So I respectfully submit the following changes to Twitter and Facebook that will make the interfaces more useful for users like me while retaining the obvious attraction to countless others.
First, require each tweet or Facebook entry be flagged as Routine, Special, or Priority. Then "friends" can make settings so they only get certain messages. I, for example, would only subscribe to Special and Priority messages, or even just Priority ones. Second, provide an option to replace the unannounced appearance of messages on one's page, a feature that presumably makes the interface feel "alive." As soon as Joe says he is brushing his teeth, you get to know! The option would be in the form of a digest -- weekly, monthly, even yearly, you get all the flagged messages presented to you somewhere. Nothing is ever sent to you without your permission. With these two changes, I might find a use for Twitter and Facebook.
I much prefer blogs for one simple reason: I control the perception. Blogs don't just appear in my space. I have to go to them, and I like it that way. You who are reading this are reading by choice. No one forced you to come here.
An email from my friend Eric tells me that his earlier question here about my reading went unanswered. An oversight! The reading went well. I read the same story the Texas high school student is reading in his interpretative reading finals later this month, a gesture of good vibrations and karma, I hope. I sold a book. I had a good time. In a couple weeks I read from Guthrie's journals at a celebration of his work. I always enjoy that.
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