I've just listened to a rather chaotic discussion on yesterday's TODAY Programme on whether Twitter is the new blogging, and whether as a result, blogging is yesterday's medium. You can listen to it HERE - scroll down to 8.44. The Yorkshire Post has followed this up with a feature today on The End of Blogging.
I am a late convert (although still a tad sceptical if I am honest) to Twitter, but I just don't see it as a comparable medium to blogging. It is certainly more instantaneous but far less interactive. Some refer to it as 'microblogging' and that is quite a good description. To be honest, I probably wouldn't do it much unless I had the 'Twadget' gadget permanently on the right hand side of my computer screen. It makes instantaneous comment so easy - possibly a bit too easy sometimes.
Remarkably, more than 500 people are now 'following' me on Twitter. I recently added it at the top of the blog - previously it had been quite a way down the sidebar. I have had only positive reaction to it by email, but I wonder if that is the whole story. I haven't quite decided yet whether to continue with it being so prominent. All feedback welcome.
Serious question.
ReplyDeleteWhat is Twitter?
The worst thing about it (other than the word limit) is that it doesn't have a comments facility.
ReplyDeleteGiven the rubbish discussed on this blog, let's hope it is eh?
ReplyDeleteNo it's just another strand of interactive communication.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who really wants to delve deeper, you need to enter the world of Knowledge Management, and a good place to start is with David Gurteen at www.gurteen.com -- all sorts of stuff including Twitter
I think it can be a supplement to, not replacement for, "conventional" blogging (if such a thing exists). Twitter doesn't allow for longer pieces with discussion and reasoning. Therefore, it will not replace blogging, although it might mean that bloggers post less short pieces (moving short items to twitter).
ReplyDeleteRemind us, how many characters per message with twitter? About 150, I hear. So all debate is to be limited to 150 letters?
ReplyDeleteProbably.
Even now, Mandleson is working on it.
Twitter is rubbish because there is no interaction. If it is to be used it has to be in conjunction with a blog, exactly as you done done here.
ReplyDeleteIf i'm honest though, I read your twitter comments because they are at the top of your blog. I'd never bother going to your twitter page to read them (not an insult or anything, twitter is just....crap.)
I like the twittering because its quick and it allows discussion of something along side say a television debate, but if you are out and miss it, then the fun is over, whereas a blog debate can run on for days....
ReplyDeleteBesides I like a good read.
If Twitter and so-called "microblogging" takes off, you can take it as read that this proto-communist, power-crazed, censorious Labour so-called "government" will ban any messages being sent via it that don't proclaim complete subservience to Brown, Blair, Kinnock and their ilk.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, it is absolutely disgraceful that the BBC and every national newspaper in this country is completely biased and loyal to this rabble posing as a government.
Here's an idea: why doesn't Cameron order all his MPs to refuse to speak to the BBC and all newspapers? All they do is spin their words to make it better for their beloved editor-in-chief, Gordon Brown. Besides, more people in this country get their news from blogs now than from the MMS, so we'd get our message across better.
Iain,
ReplyDeleteI find it takes a way long time to load your home page because it is so big. Once it has loaded I then have to scroll down to see new content. What with advert banner, your blog banner, menu, redundant Coming soon line and then three bullets of Twitter (which I never read) I can't see even the title of the latest posting - it is not as if my laptop is that old (2 years).
You are famous for being a blogger Iain so let's see the blog post!
Comparing twitter and blogging is like comparing bottled water and lager (hat-tip to the Devil for that one).
ReplyDeleteThey are NOT the same thing!
I like your twitter updates Iain but only as a supplement to your blog.
I like to hear how Gio is getting on but I wouldn't visit the blog especially to find out!!
I don't know much about this twitter thing but it seems Mandelson has been on MI6 files for quite some time. He was even seen in Moscow with his Oligarch mate before he actually took up office as trade commissioner for all of Europe.
ReplyDeleteIf Deripaska blames Osborne for all this unwelcome publicity, George had better watch out that Deripaska doesn't use his alleged links to organised crime to settle the score. Death by Polonium is not the best way to depart this world.
Mandelson named in spy files on oligarch
As an ordinary punter who doesn't know you personally Iain :
ReplyDeleteI'd say that I have a vague, prurient interest in how your average meeja tart backbencher spends his time, but I don't exactly get much insight from it in the way I would a "proper" blog post. I wouldn't particularly miss Twitter if you didn't have it, it's not why I come here.
OTOH, if you are going to have it then have it at the top of the page or not at all. The top of the page is where one expects to see your "latest" news and so having three Twitters at the very top of the blog seems to fit that expectation - as long as you Twitter reasonably frequently.
FWIW
PS I'd echo john wales' comment that I'd never visit your Twitter page itself, it's just vaguely interesting to see it en route to the "meat" of the main blog.
ReplyDeleteMaybe, yes, no. Anyway on the day official statistics showed the British economy was in trouble even before the bail out by Brown (which only took the pressure off him) shouldn't the question be - where is Brown?
ReplyDeleteAnd why is Robert Peston not leading on this issue?
ReplyDeletePeston Blog
Why is he so silent?
How do sad commenters add their deluded nonsense with Twitter?
ReplyDeleteI've given up Twitter as it never functions properly and is a complete pain in the 'ass'. Does Twitter signal trhe end of blogging? No. All it signals is the end of Twitter.
ReplyDeleteThe twitter entries are a bore. I always scroll past them. I'm not in the slightest bit interested in what twitterers are doing at this very moment. I'm dunking a ginger nut into a cup of tea... presumably I should sign up to twitter and let the people know? Shallow, or what? Your blog entries are normally considered and interesting. The twitter rubbish is just tat.
ReplyDeletei really can't think why i would want to follow anyone on twitter, even someone like you, Iain.
ReplyDeleteComment from an embittered ex-blogger perhaps but..
ReplyDeleteHow much interactivity does blogging really deliver? When was the last time we saw Iain on these threads trading facts and argument with a commenter? That's not a dig at Iain since there's rarely any comments worthy of that sort of interaction but the same applies elsewhere - can anyone show me a blog where serious debate and discussion go on in the comment threads...?
I do use Twitter, but it can't replace blogging as it's too short.
ReplyDeleteIt's good for letting people know when you've done a new post though, Ian
Twitter is SMS to blogging's Letter. Its got its place but its an addendum tech and not something you can use to actually read anything of substance. SMS has a 128 *character* limit - how much wisdom or entertainment can you get from that? Quick gossip or a short joke and that's your lot!
ReplyDeleteAs a late convert
ReplyDeleteas surely
as
any
mobile phone company
was to
SMS
which they owned
I did not understand
but now
See Twitter for what is is
A tool
It is a breaking news strap
for junkies
A blog is an essay
And sometimes
we don't feel like writing one
I think most people here just don't get it.
ReplyDeleteThe idea that blogging will be replaced by Twitter (max 140 characters) is laughable. Clearly, this item was thought up by idiotic researchers with no idea about communication.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with the poster who brings attention to the banners etc. Mc afee site iscoming up this site is considered a threat because some things on it are considered as spy ware.
ReplyDeleteI went to a 'meet the press' event organised by PR Newswire the other night. One of the main speakers from Reuters was speaking highly of twitter, saying PRs needed to integrate it and other digital tools more into their work. That's fair enough...but the speaker's comments on twitter i thought were a load of crap - i dont know ANYONE who uses twitter, its simply the latest faddish thing which digital creative types get excited about but which virtually nobody in the real world uses. I confidently predict it will die a death once the next pointless fad comes along.
ReplyDeleteThe US Army is on to you...
ReplyDelete