Twitter/Foursquare etc...Am I the only one who doesn't get them?

[GWestphal]

I understand facebook, a way to connect with people you know. I even get LinkedIn where you connect professionally.

I just don't get twitter, foursquare and the like. Why do you want to let people know every trivial thing I'm doing and where I'm doing it?

 

[OVerLoRDI]

I'm right there with you. Twitter never appealed to me. Foursquare... uhh I really like the game in Elementary school, but the app where you check in and become the Mayor of places or something? Dumb

 

[bigrash]

Twitter can be fun. I like to use it but don't post all my business.

 

[coldmeat]

I didn't think Twitter would be around this long.

 

[ghost recon88]

I'm right there with you. Twitter never appealed to me. Foursquare... uhh I really like the game in Elementary school, but the app where you check in and become the Mayor of places or something? Dumb

My thoughts exactly. I don't understand pinterest either

 

[bigrash]

My thoughts exactly. I don't understand pinterest either

yeah pinterest is really stupid.

 

[lxskllr]

I have no use for Twitter, and FourSquare is manually operated spyware. Twitter has a use if you need to make announcements to a large group(perhaps a local band), but FourSquare is worthless.

 

[PrinceofWands]

Nope, no clue. That's true of most modern things though. I get some form of social media like Facebook (though they pissed me off too much and now I'm on G+ instead). I don't see why anything else is useful though.

 

[silverpig]

Twitter is like an RSS feed but better. I use it a lot, but don't post much. I follow interesting people, news sites, sports teams, and some fictional accounts for fun.

 

[Jeff7]

I love seeing businesses get all full of hype with a big "WE'RE ON TWITTER!!!" announcement. Then they do updates for a month or two, mostly centered around the "we're on Twitter now, because we're totally 'with-it'" theme - and then never touch it again.

 

[sdifox]

No Tweeter, no Facebook pour moi.

 

[kranky]

yeah pinterest is really stupid.

From my observations, pinterest is very popular with compulsive spenders and people who use it as a pseudo-"registry" to hint at gifts they would like to receive.

I have a friend who buys all kinds of crap because she saw something on someone's pinterest page. She seems to take great pride in having stuff that wasn't available in a local store, although I don't get it myself.

 

[Triumph]

my younger coworker yesterday was trying to explain to me why i needed twitter. mainly it was because i could learn important news immediately. if something happens, everyone you know/follows posts about it. i guess that is worth something if i was one of those people who overreacts to everything. but i really just don't care to be on call and connected 24/7.

i also don't care what random celebrities have to say about random topics.

 

[gorcorps]

Twitter has its place for businesses I'm finding. I just started an account recently for Borderlands 2 codes, and find it's been useful for a few other companies that post sales and news that I find interesting. For personal use... not so much.

 

[kranky]

i also don't care what random celebrities have to say about random topics.

I guess that's the part that really shocks me. So many people following celebrities and athletes... why? I would have thought the novelty of that would have worn off quickly.

 

[oznerol]

I guess that's the part that really shocks me. So many people following celebrities and athletes... why? I would have thought the novelty of that would have worn off quickly.

It's direct access to these people that you just didn't have in the past. You weren't a fan of a movie star/athlete growing up? It's modern day "fan mail".

Aside from that, Twitter is super useful for community-based information. Sure, there's teenagers and other idiots using it to post music quotes and other trivial bullshit, but you can actively choose who you are following and what you are seeing. If you choose to follow other people in your industry, other people with shared interests, etc, it becomes a great tool to see what is the "new hotness". It's actually not much different than these forums, aside from the fact that it's limited to a small sentence per post.

As for Foursquare - it's more "useful" in large cities, but if nothing else it's a pretty good way to keep a record of the places you've been to. If you'd rather keep a private spreadsheet somewhere, that's cool too.

 

[Double Trouble]

No OP, you're not the only one. I don't get it, both twitter and foursquare seem completely pointless to me. I can see how twitter could be useful for blasting out a message to a lot of people, but personal use? Worthless.

Don't even get me started on the whole celebrities / athletes following stuff. Ugh.

 

[nageov3t]

I like foursquare... I've gotten some really great restaurant tips from there, and there's the occasional deal where you get a discount for a first check-in or something.

without foursquare, I'd never have discovered that the lunch truck I go to every day will give you sriracha sauce if you ask for it.

 

[KB]

What do you mean you don't get twitter? Its like email distrubution lists but restricted to 140 characters. Thats so much better than full feature emails in which you can actually use complete sentences to get your idea across.

 

[randomrogue]

I think twitter was great for war coverage. However if someone uses it to post that they're at home depot, at a farmers market, or other nonsense I think very little of them.

The real problem is that there are too many people who use it and think we give a shit what they have to say.

 

[JoLLyRoGer]

I don't Tweet, I don't FB, I never did the Myspace thing. I keep a LinkedIn account oddly enough, but that's a different animal.

Call me paranoid, but social networking has always rubbed me wrong. I don't need some future employer/cop/gov't/etc. scrolling through pages of me and my rowdy friends looking for dirt. I also don't need any psycho stalker ex's tracking me down either. The people who I want to stay in touch with me already know how to get a hold of me. That's as far as it needs to go.

Forums are about as "social" as I get on the Internet.

 

[rivan]

You are not alone.

 

[KidNiki1]

i dont use foursquare, but i do use twitter. its pretty useful in its own way, but i dont tweet much really.

i follow gaming stuff, authors i like and some local radio people. i do follow a few celebrities, but it's people who i personally feel tweet out interesting or thoughtful stuff. john cusak tweets some crazy stuff, last night he tweeted about 30 different songs on youtube. thats not really too different from ATOT "what are you listening to" thread. kevin pollack has some funny tweets. sometimes people link to projects they are working on that you might not know of otherwise.

i dont really see what the big deal is. if you think that all it is is people tweeting random shit they do and people replying, well sure, if you are a teenager maybe. it does have other uses beyond that though.

 

[Jeff7]

What do you mean you don't get twitter? Its like email distrubution lists but restricted to 140 characters. Thats so much better than full feature emails in which you can actually use complete sentences to get your idea across.

Not that it matters. It's a no-win situation:

- Send an e-mail that's gibberish: "Hey, project you're worked up, that needs to be sent out ASAP unless the truck."

- Send an e-mail that's far too terse: "Project X needs to ship on the truck." When there are in fact various trucks to choose from.

- Send an e-mail that's got all the details: No one reads more than the first two sentences.

 

[purbeast0]

i don't tweet or use twitter by any means, but my brother uses it to read what local sports talk show hosts tweet during redskins games and stuff. it is pretty amusing to read them during the game or during the week. i may start using it for that purpose too. he's never tweeted himself though.