This is quite timely. On 22 December 2010 I evaluated Twitter, and came to this conclusion:
However, what I would say is that, having used it for all this time, and built up a sizeable network, I’d find it very difficult to be without it [Twitter]. I discover a lot of information through it. True, I’d almost certainly find out about the important stuff anyway, sooner or later, but there are two issues embedded in that observation, aren’t there?
Firstly, what about the unimportant stuff? You know: the jokes, lighthearted banter, links to cartoons, stunning photographs? Because actually, they’re important too, but in a different sort of way.
Secondly, there’s that word “later”. Sometimes “later” is too late.
Ten years later, I feel the same way — but I’ve had to really think about it. I find Twitter useful for getting the word out about my blog posts and other writing or activities, and I especially like it for hearing about other people’s blog posts, if I’ve missed them on my RSS feeder, and news that I’ve missed. (As I commented in the most recent issue of my newsletter, I pick up a fair amount of ed tech news I’ve missed by following Tony Parkin.)
However, I’ve noticed that there seem to be many more nasty people on Twitter, and more people making nasty comments. I’ve also commented on how these days lots some people on Twitter are experts on everything: Brexit, epidemiology, how to manage a pandemic — and that’s all beside their day job.
So, I imagine I’ll be on Twitter for a while yet, but I do find myself spending less and less time on it, and engaging in conversations less and less. A shame really.
Meta note
(I think that whenever I comment on a technical aspect of a blog post within that blog post I’ll call it a ‘meta note’.)
The quote box above was created using QuoteBacks, which I discovered through Stephen Downes’ newsletter OLDaily: Quote, reply and converse across the open web. It works quite well, and encourages people to quote others and cite the source. I doubt I’ll be using it again though, at least on this blog, because the Squarespace editor already incorporates something called a Quote Block, which looks like this:
“There is only one thing worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
The Squarespace version doesn’t have quite as much functionality as QuoteBack, but it’s right there at my fingertips. If you don’t have a Quote Bloc in your blog post editor, give QuoteBack a whirl.
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