Tag Archives: Twitter

I succumbed to Twitter

I’ve been given some grief about this by some of my blogosphere buddies since I’ve pooh pooh’ed Twitter for so long. After blogging, Flickr and Facebook, do I need another Online Time Suck? Apparently, because I’ve been on Twitter for the past couple of months and am now approaching 200 Tweets. *Facepalm*

However, it did give me the opportunity to kind of do a temporary redesign on another online property (I originally got on Twitter to preserve the darleeneisms name) in honor of the Lakers as they make another championship run. I’ve also been Twittering the games, mostly at work, from time to time at home, if I’ve got the laptop in front of me. If you end up following me, don’t expect insight into the game or anything; I mostly grouse at the officiating and make silly comments. Follow me @darleeneisms or here.

Can Twitter save journalism?

Don’t be silly, I’m not suggesting that at all. But it still cracks me up how journalists latch on to what they think might be the new thing — i.e. Twitter — when there’s no evidence that it will actually stick around and become something that regular people — you know, ones who don’t spend eight hours a day online or texting on their cell phones — will actually use. Even Twitter’s CEO admits that:

Where Stone will say things like, “We’re here to impact people’s lives; we own up to our leadership position here,” Williams admits that he has trouble getting his mom to figure out his service. He is also wary of all the publicity Twitter has generated, mostly from nervous journalists striving to stay relevant in a free-information age.

You can forgive journalists their Twitter obsession. If you haven’t noticed, we’re in an economic clusterphooey of historic proportions, and many analysts are blaming the media’s failure, in particular, to create information-sharing services like Twitter. But Twitter isn’t making any money yet, either.

It’s a little irritating, to be honest. Right now, journalists are spreading themselves too thin to actually be any good. Learn how to put stuff online? Sure! Twitter? OK! How about blogging tidbits that won’t make it into the paper? Sounds great!

What a load of crap. And FYI, I don’t text, much less Twitter. I do enough in my spare time.

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