No tweets - I don’t have time for a short note

blogging

I don’t do Twitter. I have tried. I have signed up, and followed a few people. I really, really want to like it, but frankly it just falls off the list of things I can focus on in a given day. It’s just one stream of information too many.

Every now and again, I get an e-mail saying someone is now following me, and I feel like sending them a profound apology for the silence they get back in return. Well, I would - but I never quite get round to it.

Jeff meanwhile, loves it. When he wrote in Monday’s Guardian

I also read feeds of news headlines from the Guardian and individual reporters. Jim Long, a network news photographer, Twitters from White House trips. Ana Marie Cox, the former Wonkette blogger and queen of the snarky political post, has been using Twitter to cover the US primaries for Time.com. I blogged about that, saying she has found the perfect medium for her bon mots and snipes. She responded that Twitter is the perfect medium for covering a campaign. The format gives us a glimpse into what’s happening right now, and cuts to the bone. It’s a hack’s haiku

It’s clear that here is a man travelling on the information superhighway, while I’m busy chugging along on the hard shoulder.

But, the more I think about it, the more my resistance to Twitter and its ilk is as relevant as some people’s enthusiasm. And I give three reasons.

• The need to focus. What’s with this need for people to constantly provide a narrative of their life, rather than just living it? Actually, I understand the need…but I have the curse of a butterfly brain, and frankly the fewer distractions the better. If I go through the day thinking I should be telling people what I’m up to, I’d get even less done than I do already.
• Too much information. Too little value . If I twittered all day, and followed others tweets all night, would I really be any wiser, happier or wealthier?
• The challenge of brevity. You know that quote “I’ve written you a long note, because I don’t have time for a short note”. I have that problem with Twitter and Facebook status. I trip over myself trying to be concise and then the moment has passed.

I have a suspicion I’m heading to becoming the grumpy old man of digital. I just about keep a blog (how old fashioned is that!!!), and I just use an RSS reader. No Tumblr, no Twitter and I haven’t updated my Facebook status for months.

Simon @ February 25, 2008