Twitter

I recently joined Twitter.  I know I am late.  I didn't join earlier because I didn't see the point.  I thought I'd join to see if it made more sense from the inside.  I still don't really get it.

It seems that Twitter is mainly like Facebook status updates, which, just like on Facebook, can develop into conversations with people.  The problems I have with this are that (a) Facebook does this already, and (b) most things people post are of no interest to me (just like on Facebook).

One extra thing Twitter offers is the ability to follow people I don't personally know, like celebrities.  I've tried this, but have only found one (Opta Sports) that interests me.

Another problem with Twitter is that I get loads of stuff on my feed (mainly from retweeting), and it is difficult to filter out the one or two interesting things from the masses of junk.

In terms of tweeting myself, I don't see the point yet.  I rarely have anything interesting to say that I can say in 140 characters or less.  If I do, I can put it on Facebook.  Facebook has the advantage of having other uses such as photos and events.

The one thing that Twitter seems to have that is not accomplished by either blogging or Facebook is hashtags.  During June Project (our church's annual community festival) it was good to use #jp12 to see what was going on round the city.  But this advantage doesn't outweigh all the faff of trawling through masses of Tweets to find something interesting that I spend most of my Twitter-time doing.

The obvious solution to all this would be to just follow Opta Sports and no-one else.  But that seems a waste of what many people have assured me is an excellent communication method.

So, what am I missing?  Where is my understanding flawed?  What advice do you have for me?

Facebook is dying

Yesterday I attempted to use Facebook. I’ve been on Facebook for nearly 3 years and do not generally struggle with it. On this occasion, I went to a wall-to-wall between myself and a friend. I wanted to write on my friend’s wall, so I typed in the box at the top of the page. In the past, this would equal writing on her wall. Now, however, it appears that this is actually just a way of updating my status. To write on her wall I would have had to go to her actual profile.

This is one of many new changes in the latest version of Facebook. I’ve seen several major changes to the site over the last 3 years (going public, introduction of tabs, applications etc). Each has been something I’ve managed to adapt too. I was particularly a fan of the tabs idea. I hate (most) applications, but Facebook provided a way to block them, so I was happy.

However, the new change is different. Previous changes were just that – changes. To Facebook. This is not just a change to Facebook. This is an attempt to incorporate Twitter into Facebook. The latest version of Facebook is very dominated by status updates, as highlighted by my experience yesterday.

Facebook is (was) excellent at what it does. It’s a networking site. It’s a very useful way of (a) staying in tough with people, and (b) sharing photos and videos.
It is not MySpace, which is essentially ‘look at me, this is my page, look at how cool I am’.
It is not Twitter, which is essentially ‘this is what I’m doing at the moment, in case you’re interested’.
Facebook serves a different purpose to either of these sites. But now, having out-MySpaced MySpace with applications, it is trying to out-Twitter Twitter with status updates.

The biggest difference in the new Facebook is the news feed, which is no longer tabbed. In the past, there were several tabs, including one which was ‘status updates’. Now, it’s much more focused on status updates and less so on everything else (photos, groups etc.) This makes it harder to use the new Facebook for its real purposes (see (a) and (b) above).

I hope Facebook find a way to rectify the fact that it is currently crap. Otherwise my persona use of the site, and I expect that of many others, will dwindle significantly.