On 17 March I provided responses to a number of questions regarding Twitter to the Canberra Times. An article was published on 29 March that apparently quoted verbatim some of my responses. I’ve provided my responses here along with the questions for context, so hopefully it’ll make more sense.
When did you start using Twitter? Why did you start using it? What do you like about it?
I started using Twitter in late 2006 shortly after the service was introduced after it received some coverage at the Web Directions South conference in Sydney. I like trying new web technologies – it gives me the opportunity to be at the front of web innovation and influence the direction and development of new tools and identify opportunities for using them to enhance productivity and collaboration.
Twitter is definitely one of those web services that can be incredibly powerful and instrumental in building strong professional/social networks; I’ve “met” hundreds of people through Twitter who work in the web industry like I do and I can now very easily tap into that network and access the massive shared pool of knowledge.
Are there any down sides to it (eg. you don’t have any news to tell people when you meet up)?
I love Twitter so I’m not going to admit it has downsides but it can be very tricky to build and maintain your social network. You have to balance “tweeting” interesting, personal information with information overload. If I only tweeted once a day about work/profession-related stuff then people would stop following me because I’m boring. Maintaining an interesting aspect to your Twitter presence means being a person; it means sharing intimate, personal information that people can relate to at an emotional level. But if it’s too much then it tips the balance in the wrong direction.
Is it just like texting but cheaper?
Texting using SMS requires you to already have a social network in place – be it friends, family, co-workers etc and it’s very much 1-to-1. Twitter is you just putting ideas out there … it’s 1-to-hundreds or 1-to-nobody … people will respond or ignore depending on the relevance of that tweet to them. So Twitter is nothing like SMS in that sense – although because I don’t have a fancy iPhone I actually post quite a few tweets using SMS.
How often do you Twitter?
According to the very useful TweetStats website I currently post on average 40 tweets per day although that varies depending on how busy I am, whether I’m live-blogging a conference or other event using Twitter or engaging in length discussions and debates using Twitter.
Do you feel a loss of privacy because everyone knows what you’re doing?
Do I feel a loss of privacy? Yes – I reveal a lot of information on Twitter and therefore I am losing privacy but it’s not something I’m particularly concerned about. It’s the future, a society of openness and transparency where people value relationships and social networks more than privacy. Some believe that it increases the risk of identify theft but I believe that by firmly establishing your online presence you’re actually mitigating the risk of identify theft – which is why you’ll see 26,000 results for my name on Google. I think people need to think about why they want their privacy – and if they need to be hiding information from their employer because they’re “chucking a sickie” then the problem is with employment conditions or that employee’s work ethic and attitude.
Is it becoming more popular than facebook and myspace?
Twitter is not as popular as Facebook and MySpace although as those last two start to reach saturation amongst the potential user base then the acceleration of Twitter adoption will see it catch up quickly. But it’s one of those things that many people find hard to see the value in – and it’s true that it’s not for everyone. For people who have strong, tight networks of friends they already see regularly offline and don’t have the opportunity to meet people who work in their industry or share their interests and hobbies then Twitter isn’t for them.
Is it easier than these other social networking sites?
Facebook has the concept of a “friend” and it’s expected that you connect with your friends. Facebook isn’t really meant for meeting new people. Same with MySpace to a lesser extent. Twitter is very open and very flexible. It’s easier to use for sure – you just go to the site, register and then think of a short message of up to 140 characters to post. But building your social network on Twitter can be tricky. As I said, it’s about creating your own personal value through balancing interest and information and then identifying others’ values and building your network. And it can be a drain for people who insist on reading every single tweet that comes onto their screen – you shouldn’t do that. Learn to scan, pick out the interesting stuff.
Do you think many Canberrans use Twitter?
Do many Canberrans use Twitter? Apparently hundreds. But there’s only a few dozen that are really active and really use Twitter. These are the sort of people who will also come along to the Canberra Twitter User (@CTUB) meetings I coordinate who want to add that in-person dimension to their Twitter social network.
Some people believe this kind of online social networking is anti-social, but I noticed you use Twitter to set up social get togethers. How do you think Twitter impacts on people’s social skills?
As for the anti-social argument … that really bugs me. I understand where people are coming from, but any sort of interaction with another person is a social interaction so the medium where that interaction takes place is irrelevant – be it at a cafe, pub, Twitter, Facebook, over-the-phone or email. The depth of the social interaction varies but the pace and informal nature of Twitter means it’s one of richest mediums for online social interaction.
I’ve met about 800 people directly and indirectly through Twitter and from that I’ve developed some friendships with amazing people I would never have met otherwise both locally, interstate and overseas – not to mention the book writing offers, conference presentation offers, job opportunities and the daily assistance with my work that I can draw upon nearly any hour of the day. I cannot see anything anti-social about it.
// purecaffeine.com, UX, design, social media and Gov 2.0 blog by designer Nathanael Boehm, Canberra, Australia. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License.
