{"id":636,"date":"2007-03-30T07:32:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-30T07:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theothersideofeverything.com\/flip\/2007\/03\/twitter-favourite-waste-of-time\/"},"modified":"2007-03-30T07:32:00","modified_gmt":"2007-03-30T07:32:00","slug":"twitter-favourite-waste-of-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theothersideofeverything.com\/flip\/2007\/03\/twitter-favourite-waste-of-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Twitter: Favourite Waste of Time?"},"content":{"rendered":"<table WIDTH=200 align=left>\n<tr>\n<td><\/p>\n<div style=\"width:176px;text-align:center\"><embed src=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/flash\/twitter_badge.swf\"  flashvars=\"color1=255&#038;type=user&#038;id=2809321\"  quality=\"high\" width=\"176\" height=\"176\" name=\"twitter_badge\" align=\"middle\" allowScriptAccess=\"always\" wmode=\"transparent\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" pluginspage=\"http:\/\/www.macromedia.com\/go\/getflashplayer\" \/><\/embed><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>I followed <a HREF=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/blogs\/podsandblogs\/2007\/03\/emerging_technology_subs_and_r.shtml\" target=_blank>this radio piece<\/a> (available <a HREF=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/fivelive\/programmes\/upallnight.shtml\" target=_blank>online for a few more days<\/a>) with interest, having had zero interest in using <i>twitter<\/i> for myself, but having observed a raft of personal friends and contacts using this &#8220;web 2.0 gimmick&#8221; over the past months with all the new-found enthusiasm of converts to a cult music group or urban self-improvement craze.<\/p>\n<p>Rooting around to see who is on it, I am staggered at the amount of sane, intelligent, adult people in there, apparently using it like a teenage hangout. I should have known it would be big &#8211; that Evan guy invented Blogger, right, and Blogger did change my life.<\/p>\n<p>So yesterday, I dived into <i>twitter<\/i>. I&#8217;m not sure whether it&#8217;s the most <i>zeitgeist<\/i> communication web thing ever, present tense blogging, mindless inanity, or just everyone&#8217;s new favourite trendy waste of time. A lot of people seem to be frenzied twitterers&#8230; is this is for real? or is it more a matter of &#8220;keeping up with the websters&#8221;? Is this the natural outlet for the monkey-brain chatterbox which meditation teaches us to still, so that we might achieve peace and personal enlightenment? What&#8217;s the netiqette? If I &#8220;follow&#8221; someone (weird concept, just a little too much like stalking) is it flattery, friendship, or sycophancy? Or does it reveal an unhealthy interest in the minutiae of other people&#8217;s breakfasts? <\/p>\n<p><a HREF=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/deekdeekster\" title=\"twitter - if you can be arsed!\">I&#8217;ve cancelled the SMS messages &#8211; my phone filled up&#8230;<\/a> something just ain&#8217;t right about this deluge of trivia. Not sure I can bear to read stuff like, &#8220;had a bite of toast&#8221; &#8220;had another bite of toast&#8221; &#8220;no more toast&#8221; for too long. <\/p>\n<p>Which reminds me: time to make toast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I followed this radio piece (available online for a few more days) with interest, having had zero interest in using twitter for myself, but having observed a raft of personal friends and contacts using this &#8220;web 2.0 gimmick&#8221; over the past months with all the new-found enthusiasm of converts to a cult music group or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[780],"class_list":["post-636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funky-original","tag-funky-original"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theothersideofeverything.com\/flip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theothersideofeverything.com\/flip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theothersideofeverything.com\/flip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theothersideofeverything.com\/flip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theothersideofeverything.com\/flip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theothersideofeverything.com\/flip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theothersideofeverything.com\/flip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theothersideofeverything.com\/flip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theothersideofeverything.com\/flip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}