What were my thoughts about Twitter before I had even started using it? Well I had mixed thoughts about it to be quite honest. I didn’t think it could be very hard to use, nor that bad of an online place to socialize since I knew Senator Chuck Grassley uses it. However, at the same time, I wondered how many online profiles does a person really need? Isn’t a everyday social network such as Facebook and a professional network such as LinkedIn enough? I also wondered how much security could be offered from a site such as Twitter. I knew with Facebook you could pretty much set how much security you wanted (anywhere from looking like you don’t have an account, to showing the whole world where you currently live and pictures of you on vacation).
After about the first five minutes of it, I could see how fun such an online place of socializing could be fun. You could follow your most favorite groups as well as people that you’d like to know more about. So of course knowing that Chuck Grassely was on Twitter, he was of course one of the first people I “followed” (sounds like a stalker! – well I guess you pretty much are with Twitter). Then I had feeds come up from various Iowa State University related activities, and I thought this could be very useful! However that’s where it all stopped. Next thing I knew, I had a prostitute from Florida following my tweets! Of all people that could and needed to follow me, I had a PROSTITUTE! YUCK! Needless to say, I started watch what I put on there from there on out. I don’t see any reason why the whole world wide web needs to know you are going to Hickory Park in five minutes. I’ve learned after this activity, that Facebook is a more secure (from the start) atmosphere and random people can’t see everything about you right from the get go. Also, I like Facebook because I won’t crowd your News Feed with just the most recent status updates, but it will actually update it to the ones that more than likely fit your interests and the more popular threads amongst your friends. I find this a lot nicer, that way my news feed isn’t filled by people that are constantly on Twitter every three minutes like they don’t have anything better to do than announce to the whole world what, when, where, and why they have done, currently doing, or will be doing.
Twitter is obviously made for a certain type of crowd, and I’m not in the crowd that wants to blast stuff in people’s faces.
This is by far the best blog post I have ever read. Yeah, weird people tend to follow you on Twitter, but how did you know she was a prostitute? Twitter does make you sound like a stalker though; I have to agree with that.
ReplyDeleteI agree that people don't need to know every little thing you're doing. I dislike the lack of privacy - especially when something like your experience can happen. I like keeping my little status updates on Facebook with friends I trust to be able to see my things. I really dislike Twitter, and I'm sorry you had such a terrible experience with it!
ReplyDeleteI can also agree with you that it was cool and beneficial to know such things like ISU events and what the leaders of America were doing. Yeah that's pretty crazy that a prostitude was following you!! I think Twitter needs to become more structured and secure because it isn't nice to know that freaks are allowed you follow you!
ReplyDeleteHaha. I can't believe you had a prostitute following you! But I agree, Twitter needs better security and is definitely structured in a certain way for certain people. I am one of those it is not structured for!
ReplyDeletedude thats so funny because i also thought it wouldnt be hard to use...but i honestly had quite a bit of trouble trying to start it. haha
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