Since July 1st, I have tweeted (or re-tweeted) 176 times:
Of those 176:
42 were about football.
30 were me complaining, even though I have an amazing life.
22 were about golf.
22 were about soccer.
19 were conversations with my friends.
16 were on other miscellaneous topics (quotes, tv, music, etc.)
15 were about college life or attending Notre Dame.
8 were me being thankful or expressing happiness in my current mood.
2 were actually meaningful, seemingly thought out actually pensive true expressions of me that might be relevant to the outside world.
TWO. (One of those can be seen below)
OUT of 176. In case there is an online box score keeping track of my twitter batting average that means I am "hitting" a lowly .011. Exactly 1.13% of my tweets I termed meaningful. Roger Clemens, a now disgraced but former great pitcher, hit .173 in his entire major league career.
Meaningful can mean many different things for many different people. For the purpose of this discussion, I will tightly define meaningful for my use. To be deemed meaningful, my tweet has to have been original content, so no quotes. It also has to be personal to me, something that I think or believe in. So, not just a plain factual statement, there must be some personalization in the tweet. Finally, it must be at least marginally relevant to the outside world. From someone else's perspective, the tweet could be looked at as wise knowledge, a piece of advice or even just something to agree or disagree with.
Twitter was intentionally created for meaningless tid-bits. The 140 character limit discourages long, thought-provoking messages and instead focuses and promotes messages that are quick and shallow. These superficial messages have become part of the twitter culture. Rarely do people ever throw time and thoughts into their twitter, it has become increasingly discouraged.
Time to go inside the numbers of my twitter statistics.
I tend to tweet large barrages, especially of current events and sporting events that I am watching on TV.
These events have taken place since July 1st:
-PGA Championship
-Solheim Cup (this is the women's Ryder Cup)
-Notre Dame football's season began
-United States Men's Soccer team won the Gold Cup.
-I started college and began attending the University of Notre Dame
-I had multiple delays and cancellations in air travel, the wrath at which most of my whining was directed.
Another thing that is blatantly obvious in my Twitter feed is that I have no real actual problems. The whiny-ness, especially about missing flights, is all incredible petty and can exclusively be classified as 1st world problems. I never get into any true struggles of life. I don't tweet about gang violence or lack of food. I am blessed in my life; I do not have these most basic issues. I don't have to worry about drug wars or domestic disputes. Essentially, I should be smacked.
I also tweet about more or less about American life. However, I also tend to talk about white collar life; for example, golf is a white collar sport played by businessmen and upper class individuals across the country. It is the quintessential white collar game, a gentlemanly game of character and class. Soccer is also somewhat of a typical "white collar" game. The largest most recognized domestic league in the world is the Barclays Premier League in England. English are seen as distinguished and well refined from an American perspective, a white collar people.
The reality is that I probably am not going to change. I am perfectly content tweeting perfectly worthless blabber. If I enlighten or educate someone with my musings, that is great. If not, oh well. The people who "follow me" should know what to expect. I like what I post, there is no harm in it. Generally, the things that I post on twitter even amuse me.
Matt, I liked your critical analysis of your own Twitter, I found it to be both creative and interesting, and it made me curious about my own social networking habits. I especially like how, in your conclusion, you defend your social networking habits, even though you describe them earlier as being almost entirely meaningless. I like your justification for continuing to use Twitter, because it, "even amuses you." The whole argument against social networking is that it is having a negative effect on the user and making people lonely. As you said, it amuses you, and that reason alone tells me that social networking is a very positive thing for you personally. You enjoy it, and find it amusing, and that's what matters.
ReplyDeleteThe point you brought up about twitter not encouraging long and thought provoking posts was interesting. I hadn't thought of it like that before, but I agree. I admire that, although you have complained about your life, you realize that you truly have a good life and great opportunities. Some people I have seen make posts on twitter definitely do not realize that. Great post!
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