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We see the final battle between the new gods and the old gods, and Kate and Daniel are trying to keep their secrets hidden, or they risk losing all their allies.
Even with millions of users and many “legit” organizations beginning to see the use of it, people say they don’t get twitter, that they don’t see the point of hearing what someone had for breakfast. That’s always the deal- they don’t want to hear someone else’s “what are you doing right now?”
And I call bullshit. Because if that’s true, then you never chat up a coworker in the break room, you don’t ask your cube-mate what they did over the weekend, and you don’t ask your spouse “how was your day?”
When it comes to celebrities, think about it this way. Fans want to be close to them, to touch them, to be their friends, to make them fall in love with them. While we do realize, deep down, that Aston Kucher will never fall in love with us, I think we all hold a deep certainty that if the circumstances were right, [your favorite celeb here] would at least like us and be our friends. And you know what they would do if they were our friends? Yeah, they’d chat with us, tell us about the bagel they had for breakfast and the trip they’re going to take this weekend. They’re going to tell us the lame joke they heard, and about their sick kid. And it’s awesome because it’s those little peeks into someone’s world that makes us feel like we’re establishing a link with someone.
Twitter is a giant water cooler where we can learn about one friend’s broken oven, another friend’s sick spouse, Jay Lake’s chemotherapy schedule (and the fact that he’s STILL WRITING his novel through chemo), Neil Gaiman’s writing about Bradbury, and from many people, who got Nebula award nominations. This is invaluable to me, especially since I work from home and have no water cooler to visit anyway.
If you want to hear about whether I chose decaf coffee or not this morning, you can follow me on Twitter.
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7 Responses to Twitter and the Water Cooler
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You found my sacred cow, coffee. Decaf coffee is BLASPHEMY!!! My only social networking site is Twitter (i refuse to facebook… at least so far). I have my writing forums, but other than that it’s all blogs and twitter for me.
That’s a really great way of looking at it.
I think another thing some people don’t get about twitter is how it works – namely that it won’t tell anyone anything about you unless you type it in. Some incredibly technologically unsavvy people seem to think it will. Somehow. I have yet to decipher this train of logic (or lack of logic, as the case may be).
Completely agree–twitter is my virtual watercooler also. I wonder, though, if people take longer to get Twitter if they have a real watercooler. I know the majority of my tweeps work at home.
That’s fine, but it’s one more thing that provides the illusion of a relationship even with people you know. Same thing with Facebook, honestly. I don’t have time to keep up with the minute-by-minute updates and there’s a limit to how much I’m willing to scroll back. Post your mother died on Facebook, I’m unlikely to ever know. Post you’re getting married on Twitter, I’m probably going to miss the wedding. Too much noise (and I’d definitely put 90% of both my FB and Twitter-feeds in that category) kills the possibility of signal.
I used to have a bone to pick with business professionals who said they don’t get twitter – this was after it took me a few months to “get it.” After I figured it out, I’m okay with those that don’t get it – because that’s why the social media managers exist. But, forget the tweets about breakfast – check this out: from Twitter in the last month, I secured a 2 nationally recognized endorsing partners for a client, connected 2 former NFL players w/ a NFLer/speaker client (one the 2 formers may become a new client for me), introduced 3 game publishers/developers to a marketing exec in Europe – he’s doing business with one and pitching to another next week – and introduced the a major corporate vp to a non profit leader. And, this isn’t everything. This afternoon I’m talking with an iphone developer and tomorrow I’ll be talking with the former corporate outreach coord. for a major television network. All of this happens within 2-3 tweets. Just gotta know how to work it.
You captured perfectly how Twitter works for someone like me. I’m not networking or promoting anything; I just use it as a way to feel a little less lonely during the day.
Agreed — it’s my water cooler too. Like a water cooler, it stays in my office. I don’t take it out.
I especially like their List feature. I have two lists: WaterCooler and Stars. The first group knows I exist, the other doesn’t. This helps when I need to be selective. Also, when a subgroup gets really chatty, I move them to a temp list so they don’t overwhelm the signal.
Another downside is if something important happens while your away. In an office, someone would think to tell you. Online, your presence or absence isn’t as noticeable. I once innocently asking about something that had unexpectedly blown up while I was away. Now I take the time to Tweet: Back from vacation. Anything happen that I should know about?