Why I Do Not Use Twitter

I have had a twitter account for a few years now and rarely used it. So the past of couple weeks while working on the class assignment I really gave it a second chance. I began following people and companies that I already check updates from on a daily basis. I am a true news junkie so naturally CNN, The New York Times and other news titans ended up in my tweeter page feed as well as a few celebrities and personal friends. I even used Twitter categories feature to find things of interest outside of the usual comfort zone.

Days have passed by and once again I found myself barely ever checking my Twitter page. I simply kept following my usual routine of getting information some place else. I had to try and identify the reasons why I could not force myself to use Twitter. The answer has surprised me. The core of Twitter business model – 140 character status updates – did not work for me. I simply found the messages annoying, too short, and too  difficult to digest. Most of the tweets had lots of attachments like hash tags, hyperlinks, etc. So when something would catch my eye I was required to decode the short message and eventually go to external pages to get the full story. For example:

ashton kutcher ‏@aplusk

luxury takes to the skies - http://bit.ly/Yw9nU2 

The message itself gave me very limited information regarding what was behind the link. You can discover the content by clicking at it which takes you to NBC’s website. As a user I had no idea of knowing what the tweet actually means before leaving the Twitter website.

Another example of Twitter being too small for it’s own content is the fact that you cannot post pictures without using an external application.

ian somerhalder ‏@iansomerhalder

Part Deux: http://instagr.am/p/W4nNXmqJwg/ 

So a tweet like the one above has no meaning without Instagram app that actually hosts the image.

The more I thought about all the disadvantages of Twitter the more I kept coming back to the same thought: “It’s just not Facebook.” Tweets just can’t compare to longer, more readable Facebook posts that allow users to view the content (pictures, videos, full articles) right there and then.

After comparing the content I get from the same people and companies on Facebook vs. Twitter I was surprised to find out that it doesn’t always match. This contradicted my initial understanding that liking someone on FB and following the same person on Twitter would result in duplicate posts. However, I found the content posted on Facebook to be more meaningful.

Besides failing to find value in tweets content there was another destructing component – the speed with which those tweets kept appearing on my screen. Because it takes very little time and effort to write a tweet, those short messages just kept piling up at the top of my feed. Very quickly I’ve experienced information overload to say the least. And then it hit me – Twitter unfortunately is the face of American culture. In the nation where 8% of children 3-17 years of age get diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder, Twitter is just a reflection of what we have become. Our overfed and over stimulated minds can no longer consume information in full paragraphs. This would require time that we no longer have or are able to devote to quality. Instead, we gorge ourselves on quantity – 140 character half-sentences flashing at the speed of light.

I am sure small businesses and large corporations that advertise on Twitter are over the moon since they are able to appear on customer screens using very little effort. We cannot blame them. As consumers we have made it too easy to sell us things, influence our opinions, tell us what to think. By letting 140-character tweets run our life we are giving up something very valuable – our character. 

By no means am I social media snob and want to kill Twitter at its root. However, I cannot help but feel less intelligent after consuming tons of information via Twitter. Call me old-fashioned, but I will most likely stick to reading full-size articles in newspapers, view whole picture albums of my friends on Facebook, and obsessively check news online. After all CNN.com is only a click away in my browser bookmarks.