Escape Artists
The Lounge at the End of the Universe => Gallimaufry => Topic started by: SFEley on April 25, 2007, 11:47:42 PM
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See what I'm doing at:
http://twitter.com/SFEley (http://twitter.com/SFEley)
I've been at it for a couple of days, and still trying to decide if I'll continue with it long-term. On the one hand, it could be viewed as an even more constant distraction than ordinary blogging (including LiveJournal); but it's a shallower distraction, if that makes any sense. With only 140 characters to say what you're doing, I'm not going to spend hours revising. I'll spend a minute writing something and then go back to whatever. And 'following' other people in Twitter is surprisingly efficient, particularly with a good client (http://iconfactory.com/software/twitterrific); you get a lot of "I'm at work," "I'm eating lunch," etc. messages, but they take less than a second to read so there's not much of your life wasted by them.
Anyway. At least for now, you can follow me and see what I'm doing there, and whether I'm catching up on submissions as I should be. >8->
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See what I'm doing at:
http://twitter.com/SFEley (http://twitter.com/SFEley)
I've been at it for a couple of days, and still trying to decide if I'll continue with it long-term. On the one hand, it could be viewed as an even more constant distraction than ordinary blogging (including LiveJournal); but it's a shallower distraction, if that makes any sense. With only 140 characters to say what you're doing, I'm not going to spend hours revising. I'll spend a minute writing something and then go back to whatever. And 'following' other people in Twitter is surprisingly efficient, particularly with a good client (http://iconfactory.com/software/twitterrific); you get a lot of "I'm at work," "I'm eating lunch," etc. messages, but they take less than a second to read so there's not much of your life wasted by them.
Anyway. At least for now, you can follow me and see what I'm doing there, and whether I'm catching up on submissions as I should be. >8->
Okay, that site is BAFFLING!
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Okay, that site is BAFFLING!
Hmm, I guess I should explain it. Everyone in the podcast world seemed to know about it months before I did, so I forget what it looks like from the outside.
Twitter's a sort of micro-blogging application. It asks you exactly one question: "What are you doing?" And you answer it in 140 characters or less. (I believe this specific limit's related to SMS; it's set up so you can also post to it from your cell phone or most IM services, or from various little applets.)
Other people with Twitter accounts can then add you as their friend. When they do, they are 'following' you -- your answers to "What are you doing?" show up on their home page, or optionally on their cell phone or IM or helper applets. So the important effect is: your friends on Twitter all know what you're doing. Or at least, whatever you choose to tell them you're doing.
It sounds utterly stupid, but there's a charm to it. You start following other people and there's a sort of gestalt that forms, public conversations that are more ephemeral and casual than blog comments. And it doesn't eat too much time, because how long does it take to read a 140 character message? Or to write one? It only eats time if you start thinking about it too much. Which isn't exactly the intent.
Anyway. I'm enjoying it for now. Dunno if I could stick with this in the long term, but it's one more fast and spontaneous place for me to be a smartass. (As if I needed another.)
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I signed up, mad whim. I'd post my thing here but no-one gives a rat's patoot what I'm doing.
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I signed up, mad whim. I'd post my thing here but no-one gives a rat's patoot what I'm doing.
That, my friend, is known as "self-fulfilling prophecy."
(If you decide you're boring, you're somewhat stacking the deck against others discovering differently.)
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Oh, Steve Eley, you are so wise. I wish you were my dad. :D