Why Twitter isn't pointless babble
Have you ever sat in a bar or a coffee shop, just watching what people do, examining the expressions on their faces, or just desperately trying to overhear the endearing nonsense that emerges from their mouths?
That's how I think of Twitter.
Except there is one small difference with this peculiar little microblogging site: you can control who is in the bar or the coffee shop.
Some extremely clever people at Pear Analytics declared last week that 40 percent of tweets are "pointless babble". However, might their analysis be, as the English enjoy saying, just a little pear-shaped?
Some people might view, say, reality television as pointless. Yet for others it reveals aspects of humanity that can enlighten far more than many a drama.
And the lovely thing about Twitter is that it is reality television without those pesky scriptwriters.
Because, while you are not the scriptwriter, you are certainly the producer. You choose the cast, you fire the cast when they're boring you, and budget is no problem whatsoever.
You want Shaq in your soap opera? Please do help yourself.
You want some obscure 15-year-old Irish blogger who has sworn off chocolate (and I think I am following one), then he is entirely at your disposal.
Of course, there are those who enjoy large crowds and follow thousands of people. They are probably people who enjoy blockbuster movies and have little interest in character development.
But there is something peculiarly mesmerizing about reading, say, Stephen Fry's torrid emotions on the subject of his beloved and largely terrible lower level soccer team, Norwich City.
On the other hand, sometimes strange people from out there in the world decide they will follow you.
You check who they are and think to yourself: "I wonder what the life of an Australian fisherman who is deeply into the NBA might be like". So you follow him and, in a way that is no more than staring at a painting at a gallery, you begin to discover.
Perhaps these people tweet about picking their noses, flowers for their beloveds, or sides in a fight. Perhaps in isolation, such things seem pointless.
But, as long as you follow a palatable number of people, even allegedly mundane actions bring, on a day-to-day basis, a certain flavor to your view of the world that day. Just like being out on the streets and observing.
Pointless babble? To a number-cruncher, perhaps. But when did number-crunchers ever tickle the soul?
Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. 
I don't understand the problem. First who cares if it's just Babble? Doesn't mean it is pointless. Babble is fun sometimes.
More importantly and what I feel nobody is noticing.
If 40% of the tweets are meaningless babble then wouldn't that mean that 60% of the tweets aren't pointless?
Twitter is MSG laced candy for the brain. It is a waste of time and energy and it isn't surprising that this author is a cheerleader for the dumbing down of humanity.
Ming
@artmaker
The coffee shop I go to has regulars, like a high court judge, various writers, a conspiracy nut, a French teacher, and an insurance salesman. It has comedy on some nights, jazz on others. It has nursing students from the college up the street, families on weekends, moms with babies, teens at night. That guy who lives down the street and stands outside smoking. Sometimes, it has annoying people who come in and upset the balance, which means that when they leave, we all talk about how annoying they were. Sometimes it has crazy people who you just have to pity. One time it had a heroin addict who left a needle in the sink. And once in a while it has Malcolm Jamal Warner, Valerie Berteneli, and Kirsten Dunst (well, once).
And that's real life. Most of those people I never would have seen, heard or met if I got to pick and choose beforehand who I allowed into my coffee shop. Luckily, I don't have that power, even if the owner does like me.
@munkyfonkey
For the many of which yours truly is guilty of, it is where my curious self can be passively prurient about anyone getting in and passing by a coffee shop or bar. It gets better when i "can control who is in the bar or the coffee shop"
Reality tv shows have been remotely possible for me until i turned my curious attention to Twitter 3 mos ago; it is somewhat a realityshow out in twitterworld. Thanks.
Well & Nicely put :-)
I am not religious, but a couple weeks ago the Catholic church in England (I think) came out concerned about what the internet would do to youth, their idea being that considering Facebook friends or Twitter followers real friends is dangerous to the psyche. We are a social species, but the internet doesn't cut it. I don't use Facebook or Twitter or Myspace or any of the social networking sites and I think I'm a lot happier for it than the people I know that do. They are always worried about something somebody left on their wall or wrote on Twitter. Personally, trying to justify Twitter as a useful study of human beings is disgraceful. If you want to study human beings, go find them and study them, don't sit at your desk reading webpages and say it's just as good.
Personally, trying to justify literature as a useful study of human beings is disgraceful. If you want to study human beings, go find them and study them, don't sit at your desk reading books and say it's just as good."
- Isaiah Brunwald, 1456
http://www.esarcasm.com/3734/80-percent-of-twitter-studies-pointless-babble-researchers-find/
I am grateful for any progress I see in this world. So I am happy to see change that you can believe in.
Thank you for commenting..
Chris
Thank YOU for commenting. I'm glad I could be the change you could believe in.
Sure, home videos might be fun to make now that just about everyone has a video camera on their phones these days. But I would much rather spend my precious attention-span moments on someone who is actually good at it: movies, seeing sports on TV, etc.
http://www.badgerbadgerbadger.com/
And if it's so pointless why are there all of these studies?
What I personally believe is the most "Pointless Babble" are the endless statistics being fired around that provide % counts but no depth of understanding. They get used to create hype headlines (ie: 26% of Twitter users under 19, Teens don't Tweet or 40% of Tweets are Pointless Babble etc, etc, etc.). Because of the complex and varying uses for Twitter as you've mentioned, these are all meaningless unless a deep understanding of purpose is analyzed. What surprises me is that all the purveyors of these statistics claim to be analytic experts and do not seem to want to provide that level of depth.
As Twitter evolves more and more, the power of its search functionality and its organic global contacts network will share more information with more people. I can only believe that more information sharing is a good thing.
and then perhaps it will be exactly that.
- by lixingchen August 31, 2009 7:24 AM PDT
- Biodegradable Ideas... the dissolve as soon as they are created!
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