Apropos of the talk this week about Twitter (can you believe these bastards are still in business after the barrage they've gotten here?)*:
Does anybody remember a fleeting term used by the first generation of Internet smart-alecks, around 1995? The "brick world," they called everything except the Internet.
Well, sometimes I surf the Internet looking for the brick world. And other times I surf the brick world looking for the Internet. And I'm here to tell you they're still two different places.
For instance, you can Twitter until you're light blue in the face and you won't find the sort of thing I found the other morning at a suburban restaurant while waiting for my motorcycle to be repaired:
A table of three fat old jagoffs eating breakfast in preparation for a day's work. One complained that he lost $100 in a poker game last night. Another flirted raunchily with the good-natured young waitress. All of them worked the crossword puzzle together, sharpening their minds for the job ahead: picking up a piano in Calumet City and moving it to Elmhurst.
The Internet for climate—the brick world for company!
* Commenting in response to my IABC poem from earlier this week, Boots reader Chuck B. wrote what I believe is the best sentence that has ever appeared on this blog: "Twitter makes me want to be a plumber."
Chuck B. is currently being cross stitched on a pillow to be proudly displayed on my living room couch. Hurrah!
On this very topic, I invite your readers to read our friend and fellow blogger Les Potter’s post on how different this year’s IABC World Conference was from previous years thanks in part to social media.
http://lespotter001.wordpress.com/
Thanks, Robert; Les’s post is fantastic, and I’ve told him so.
And how about Potter’s headline: “Speaks, tweets and leaves.”
Love it. The man has a wicked sense of humor.
You guys are the ones I learn from. But thanks for your kind words. I am not worthy.
This whole Twitter thing has me confused. I am trying to use it to learn from it, to get what it might teach me. But it is a sorry teacher; it won’t take the time to talk with me in any detail.
I’d rather have a beer and a talk with you David and Robert any day, any time. That’s is real connection.
I agree, Les. I’ve been an avid Facebooker, but primarily to keep in touch with far=flung friends and family. Twitter is like a mosquito to me…pesky and quick and makes me itch. I’m sticking with it, especially since our work has now blocked FB since it’s designated a “dating” site (whatever) but I’m not happy to be sticking with it. I don’t get it.
Which is why Nielsen Online research found that more than 60% of Twitter users quit after one month.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,,25406742-36418,00.html
Eileen, I, too, love Facebook. I believe the status update feature of FB is far superior to Twitter.
Eileen, I talk to you on FB all the time. So, um, are we dating? – Amy
And BTW, Eileen, if we are dating now due to FB, I’ve been cheating on you with Kristen and a whole slew of others…
Amy, we’ve been dating for about 2 years now, and I’m okay with you two-timing me with kristen.
Wait. Eileen, you mean you’ve been three-timing me with Amy and Kristen????
Robert – sad but true.