May 4th, 2008
Twittering - or just a twit?
I am back from Admin2008 and relatively recovered from the now expected travel trauma involving late or cancelled flights and unexpected overnight stays. I enjoyed seeing everyone, attendees both familiar and and new, speakers, colleagues and the View staffers. I noticed something in Boston that I had noticed recently at Kat and Atom's wedding - and it's starting to annoy me - a little around the edges plus, it makes me sad.
It's Twitter. Or maybe its just certain twits (defined by real dictionaries alternately as an annoying person or someone who is regarded as contemptible see also fool, twerp.) I think I 'get it' about Twitter - a little, but I can't really get into it. It helps with the isolation that many of us who are solo, virtual workers feel. So from that point of view, its the virtual water cooler - so I don't think I'm so old that I don't get what people like about it. But the line crosses quickly and it seems relatively often from social networking into simple twitdom.
Our business - the technology business most of us are in attracts nerds, no doubt. I've worked to try and keep a healthy balance between nerd and human, to avoid the really sad specter of just becoming a stoop-shouldered keyboarder who stares into the screen all night instead of actually walking into the yard to talk to neighbors and friends. It's easier to not have to make eye contact, interact, have to shower and wear clean clothes maybe. But I'm not so introverted that I can stay in that place - if I were, I wouldn't have the brass to step onto stage and think anyone cared what I have to say. Plus, I get yelled at if I stay in front of the computer when not working - and maybe we should all get yelled at. I am getting to my point.
At Kat and Atom's wedding, there was a fabulous reception, great food and music and dancing. I was sitting at the table at one point and looked around and noticed that the girls were on the dance floor just like in junior high, and the boys were at the tables. Except that they were all grown people. And the boys were twittering either with each other or people who weren't there while their beautiful wives had fun dancing and talking to each other. It seemed strange, but hey - the people there were mostly younger than me, more tattooed and pierced and I just shrugged it off as odd - or maybe me being old or not understanding the slightly 'faster' crowd. But....
At Admin2008, you saw and heard about people twittering the whole time. I even opened an account to see what John Head had typed about something I said. It was everywhere. From the stage, you could see people doing it. Where it crossed the line into twitdom and prompted this post was at the pub on Thursday night. More than a few people including vendors, speakers and paying customers went out for a few drinks after dinner and the magic show. I was talking to Yancey of planetlotus.org fame about real things and caught the sight of 1, then 2 then 3 or more guys (sorry, all guys) leaned into their various mobile devices twittering people who weren't in the room, or maybe each other. So - explain this - you go out to have a drink with pals, then ignore them and send messages to other people not there. I mentioned it to a couple of the twits/twerps/nerds, probably not nicely. So - have a sip of a drink, type "I just had a sip of my drink", stare into the screen and wait to see what other people type back at you, then type "My drink was warm", while never noticing that the person breathing the air in the space next to you would have listened too had you looked up, into their face and said something with your voice.
At one point, one of the speakers got a twitter message asking if he was worried about people twittering about him while he was on stage- his style, his content, etc....I'll answer for all of us: No. Way back when we were kids - like 2 years ago - people did that all the time - except in the halls, at the coffee breaks and in the bars. With their voices instead of their thumbs. And they wrote feedback both positive and negative on the feedback forms and we read them and made adjustments. If attendees only griped to each other or the air, the show wouldn't be the premier event it is. So no, he doesn't care nor do any of us, but I do think its rude on a ginormous scale. So what I want to know is ...Has it come to this? Human contact not necessary? Is this bothering anybody else? Is it rude? Let me know - cuz if its me, I'll just go ahead and make my reservation at the nursing home, plus get a job bagging groceries or something where eye contact is sometimes required.
