[Air-L] Trivial tweeting

[Ren Reynolds]

I think we are underplaying the range of uses of Twitter by both  
individuals and organizations.

A few that we have not touched on here are (all of which generally lay  
out side the domain of day to day one to many tweeting):

Group conversation
- groups of individuals that use twitter as an asynchronous chat client
- tag based topic / event chat

Public Relations
- Press releases
- Individuals twittering (like blogging) from an official position
- 'Information' tweets
- - Tower Bridge
- - Satellites

Games
- SpyMaster

Geek Play
- 'Toaster on twitter' etc

Political / Performative
- Historical Diaries
- Tweets in Character (ARG's etc)
- Straight out politics

Utility
- "I'm at Bar X"
- "I've reached home" (Implies had not been kidnapped)


Ren
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On 3 Jul 2009, at 17:02, Ruth Deller wrote:

>
> Some strong observations there, Mariana, which I'd largely agree with
>
> I also wonder if country plays a role - for example in the UK, there  
> is a strong current of using Twitter as a group conversation, partly  
> inspired, I think, by the number of British celebrities on there who  
> also participate and who act as 'opinion leaders'.  There also seems  
> to be a British 'type' - again perhaps because of the celebrities -  
> 25-45(ish), fairly educated, fairly liberal etc.
>
> You'll find that UK topics regularly 'trend' as people take part in  
> collective conversations about news, TV shows, sport or music events.
>
> The likes of Glastonbury, Wimbledon, Big Brother, Top Gear, Ashes to  
> Ashes, The Apprentice, Masterchef (also on in Australia at the  
> moment), and Britain's Got Talent all regularly make the trending  
> topics.
>
> I followed the Twitter discussions on a programme I'm researching  
> which was shown here at 7pm on Sunday night and it produced a large  
> volume of tweets considering its profile - this is partly because  
> the journalist whose programme it was is very active on Twitter and  
> was taking part in interactive discussion about the show.  For three  
> hours around the broadcast time the feeds were constantly refreshing.
>
> I sometimes join in and watch the hashtag feeds for programmes I am  
> enjoying watching and tweeting about myself (likewise for news  
> events) and there's something very enjoyable about the communal  
> watching experience that's different from posting on a blog (for  
> example).
>
> Twittering about news and current affairs has the same feeling, as  
> well as it being a quick way to circulate blogs, reports and other  
> things.
>
> In my city, Sheffield, we had floods twice this year, and the  
> #sheffieldflood09 hashtag helped people update each other on road  
> closures and so on.
>
> There's also the excitement of seeing works in process - several  
> people use Twitter to help in research or work projects, or to  
> update followers on how things are progressing, and so there's a  
> sense of participation and collectivity there.
>
> As for tweets about brushing teeth etc, I don't mind.  I also enjoy  
> the odd hashtag game.  I like the mixture of the personal, the  
> professional, the serious, the trivial, the individual and the  
> collective - but I tend to personally see Facebook more as about me  
> and my close friends and Twitter more about a set of conversations.
>
> Ruth Deller, Sheffield Hallam
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org 
> ] On Behalf Of Mariana Matos
> Sent: 03 July 2009 16:41
> To: Cornelius Puschmann; RBerkman at aol.com
> Cc: air-l at listserv.aoir.org; bernie.hogan at oii.oxford.ac.uk
> Subject: Re: [Air-L] Trivial tweeting
>
> Hi there!
>
> I've been reading the threads on this topic, and I've some ideas to  
> share
> with you.
>
> First of all, I totally agree with Cornelius, that we shouldn't  
> judge twitts
> as "trivial", because it's something personal. For example, what may  
> look
> trivial to one, may not look the same way to others... So, what's  
> trivial? I
> also liked the comparison with writing on park benches and the reasons
> people should have to do this.
>
> I think that people may tweet for different reasons, and that's what  
> I've
> been hearing from Twitter users. There are some who don't write a  
> line.
> They're "spectators", often looking for relevant information. In  
> that case,
> they follow who they consider to be a good source of news and  
> information.
>
> There are others who are themselves the news/information  
> "producers". They
> always have a good amount of followers, although they follow few  
> people.
>
> Finally, there are those who use Twitter as a way of keeping in  
> touch with
> friends. For these people, Twitter is almost a chat room, and we can  
> see
> conversations being held. I think that among them are most of those  
> who
> tweet things that could be seen as "trivial". However, if we  
> consider that
> they're being read mostly by their friends, I wouldn't say that their
> followers would classify their tweets as trivial... One example. I  
> have a
> close friend who's 8 months pregnant. She often twitt about how she's
> feeling. When she tweets about contractiong, for example, that  
> wouldn't be
> very interesting for those who don't know her, or who aren't close  
> to her.
> But as she's a close friend of mine, it interests me and other of her
> followers. Then, for me it's not "trivial tweeting".
>
> One last thing I'd like to say. Some time ago there was a trending  
> topic
> which was "whyitweet". Among many responses, there were many  
> references to
> the sensation of being important. Many said that they liked  
> pretending that
> people cared about what they say, or that twitting made they feel like
> they're so paid attention. I think these responses bring some light  
> to the
> subject.
>
> Sorry about the long message!!
>
> Best regards,
>
> Mariana Matos-Silva
> PhD Student
> PUC-Rio
> Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Cornelius Puschmann" <cornelius.puschmann at uni-duesseldorf.de>
> To: <RBerkman at aol.com>
> Cc: <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>; <bernie.hogan at oii.oxford.ac.uk>
> Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2009 1:48 PM
> Subject: Re: [Air-L] Trivial tweeting
>
>
>> Hi Rob, Bernie and colleagues,
>>
>> the communicative behavior that you describe is precisely what my
>> presentation in the Twitter session at IR 10.0 will address (I  
>> believe
>> the title contains something about "reporting states and actions" -  
>> am  on
>> my iPhone so can't check). The published papers on Twitter by   
>> Honeycut
>> and Herring/danah describe interactional tweeting (tweets  that  
>> initiate
>> an exchange or can be assumed to be written with the  goal of  
>> initiating
>> one) in detail, but non-interactional tweeting has  not been  
>> covered yet
>> as far as I can tell.
>>
>> I've looked into (and written about) the same issue with blogs and I
>> would caution anyone a) against using value judgements ("trivial"
>> tweeting/blogging etc) and b) against assuming from the start that   
>> this
>> kind of behavior is audience-centric (i.e. that people write this   
>> stuff
>> with a lot of consideration for their readers, or, more   
>> specifically,
>> with the intention of providing useful information to  them).
>>
>> Why do people scratch "I was here" into park benches or leave their
>> imprint in wet cement? Because creating a record of your existence   
>> proves
>> both to yourself and to others that you were in a certain place  at a
>> certain point in time, which at least to me seems to be more the   
>> result
>> of a basic psychological need than a genuinely social activity.   
>> You're
>> not really "messaging" those others in that you necessarily  have any
>> communicative intent other than wanting the words to echo  back to  
>> you.
>> Why do people write diaries? At least in part to  stabilize the  
>> self, to
>> create a coherence of thoughts, emotions and  events in relation to  
>> the
>> self (see research by James Pennebaker et al  on health improvements
>> related to diary writing).
>>
>> It's possible to integrate this with the ambience argument. Non-
>> interactional tweets tend to report places, activities and physical/
>> emotional states (what someone had for lunch is less common in my
>> subjective experience). They usually indicate changes from the  
>> default
>> which are noteworthy to the twitterer, regardless of their   
>> informational
>> relevance. How often have you read "am on the train to  X / the  
>> plane to Y
>> / just arrived at a hotel in Z"? I am not disputing  that this  
>> information
>> can also be relevant to others, but my  impression is that that  
>> isn't the
>> reason why people tweet it so  frequently. Travelling places us  
>> outside of
>> our usual environment both  spatially and socially and therefore  
>> increases
>> both the need to report  and the likelihood that the information  
>> will be
>> perceived at least as  marginally relevant.
>>
>> I'll stop here, before I reproduce the content of at least one of my
>> papers in all its lengthy entirity. My central arguments:
>> 1) audience design in blogs and Twitter greatly varies from person to
>> person (see Scott Nowson's work on blogging and personality) - in my
>> opinion, minimal intended audience is the blogger/tweeter herself,
>> 2) communication is always motivated, but not always audience- 
>> oriented  -
>> especially if you don't know exactly who your audience is or what it
>> perceives as relevant, which is why people tweet this stuff but don't
>> usually email it or post it to mailing lists such as this one,
>> 3) in a medial environment where any information can be stored and
>> transmitted to anyone with equal and minimal effort, strictly  
>> speaking
>> nothing is "relevant" or "irrelevant", and I think people sense this.
>>
>> My 0.05€.
>>
>> Cornelius Puschmann, PhD
>> University of Duesseldorf
>> Department of English Language and Linguistics
>> http://ynada.com
>>
>> Am 02.07.2009 um 15:30 schrieb RBerkman at aol.com:
>>
>>> Have you read the various discussions and articles on the concept  
>>> and
>>> desire for "ambient awareness"--the desire to develop a kind of   
>>> sixth
>>> sense
>>> about what our friends and colleagues are doing/thinking/ 
>>> observing,  so
>>> in a
>>> sense we feel more connected to them? So, just like you might be
>>> chatting on
>>> the  phone with a friend or relative and say you've just had a   
>>> delicious
>>> Thai
>>> chicken  sandwich as a way to share something trivial, but still
>>> socially
>>> bonding, the  same can be done over your Twitter followers, writ
>>> large...
>>>
>>> Robert Berkman
>>> Associate Professor
>>> Media Studies & Film
>>> The New School
>>> **************It's raining cats and dogs -- Come to PawNation, a  
>>> place
>>> where pets rule! (http://www.pawnation.com/?ncid=emlcntnew00000008)
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