Twitter

shortfall

Having ditched Facebook about 10 years ago I decided to dip my toe back into the world of social media. I had no desire to return to FB so I opened a Twitter account to see what I was missing. And the answer it seems is a load of s.h.i.t. Is it just me or does it consist largely of angry people retweeting articles that appeal to their own prejudices and adding their own banal comments in support?

Stevo_666

I occasionally take a look when I get a link to something on Twitter but like you, can't really see the point. High volume, poor quality.

thistle_

I "follow" a few people on Twitter, the local hyperlocal news and a blogger down the road. Both useful/interesting for me and they moderate the retweeting and ranting so I don't have to.

By follow, I mean I've got the web page bookmarked. I've not signed up.

I find it worrying that if you need to contact a customer services department at a company, half the time the only way to get a response is via social media. It's like submitting your warranty claim to giant/trek/canyon etc. by posting on this forum.

chris_bass

twitter can be what you make it really - i don't post much i follow people i like to hear from ignore those i don't - read he comments sections at your own risk! if you thought the daily mail comments were bad you ain't seen nothing!

It is good for breaking news and traffic updates

fenix

Stop following angry people then ? You choose who to follow.

briantrumpet

I just use it for the odd complaint to companies who don't respond to normal channels, and watch a few US ones for the politics. It's mostly full of nutters though. I still find FB a useful medium for various things... and I've got a lovely load of nutters for friends there, most of whom are friends in real life.

fatted864

Depends who/what you follow

shortfall

fenix said:

Stop following angry people then ? You choose who to follow.

I am discovering this! The problem is that a couple of mates and cousins are prolific retweeters and seem to spend their lives on Twitter and consequently their resulting Twitter storms end up on my feed. I guess I'll have to mute them.

david7m

I think it's great, I don't post but follow the news, weather and funny accounts eg hold my beer.

Longshot

I use Twitter to follow certain feeds for information purposes plus a few non-contentious friends and cycle world people. These feeds are 99% benign.

The wider Twitter world can be a bit of a cesspit. Any online 'forum' seems to bring out the worst in certain people but with Twitter that effect seems to be of a higher order of magnitude. It can be a very, very nasty place. Having said that you can avoid it fairly easily by carefully selecting what you follow and avoiding a lot fo the comments!

elbowloh

My problem with twitter is that I don't give a flying fuck what people on twitter think about something so am annoyed that every news story seems to now include a section on what peoples reaction to the story was/is on twitter. Fuck off, that's not news. I think people in the media think that everyone is on it, when it's actually only a very small minority of the population who use it.

I also know some people who get their "news" from twitter. I told them that unless it's gone through some sort of editorial process and at least a little bit of fact checking, then it's not news, but rumour.

ddraver

Yeah, I would use it to focus on specific things...

For example, my twitter follow list is UK politics, Pro Cycling and a bit of work related stuff (although not directly associated obvs). I then use Instagram to follow hobbies and friends.

There is also no shame in not following people if their twitter feed doesn't match what you like about them. For example a journo whose column i might like to read, but who just retweets his own links. See also CyclingNews who just constantly spam retweet their articles 20 times a day

kingstongraham

I like it. Where else can you get updates like this?

https://twitter.com/MeCookieMonster/status/1122500766386806785