There are many different ways that people are using Twitter these days. Just like blogging, I don’t think there is a right way or a wrong way to use the product.
Some are promoting their website and their brand. Jack was on Fox News today talking about how politicians are using it. Companies are using Twitter as a new type of customer care. Some people only use Twitter Search to see what people are talking about any given topic in real time. Some use Twitter in as public, always on messaging service. Thrid party developers integrate Twitter with their apps (I saw an interesting one this morning).
And of course, many people use it to answer the question: “What are you doing?”
For many folks that don’t use Twitter, the idea of answering that question publicly is confusing. Why do my friends want to know that I’m drinking coffee or going out for a run?
The Sunday NYTimes magazine has an article about Twitter & Facebook (and a Tumblr mention too!). The article introduces this idea called ‘ambient awareness’.
This is the paradox of ambient awareness. Each little update — each individual bit of social information — is insignificant on its own, even supremely mundane. But taken together, over time, the little snippets coalesce into a surprisingly sophisticated portrait of your friends’ and family members’ lives, like thousands of dots making a pointillist painting. This was never before possible, because in the real world, no friend would bother to call you up and detail the sandwiches she was eating. The ambient information becomes like “a type of E.S.P.,” as Haley described it to me, an invisible dimension floating over everyday life.
I love that idea.
Read the full article here.
lomo:
(via bebelestrange)
My brother and I used to play a game. I’d point to a chair. “THIS IS NOT A CHAIR,” I’d say. Bird would point to the table. “THIS IS NOT A TABLE.” “THIS IS NOT A WALL,” I’d say. “THAT IS NOT A CEILING.” We’d go on like that. “IT IS NOT RAINING OUT.” “MY SHOE IS NOT UNTIED!” Bird would yell. I’d point to my elbow. “THIS IS NOT A SCRAPE.” Bird would lift his knee. “THIS IS ALSO NOT A SCRAPE!” “THAT IS NOT A KETTLE!” “NOT A CUP!” “NOT A SPOON!” “NOT DIRTY DISHES!” We denied whole rooms, years, weathers. Once, at the peak of our shouting, Bird took a deep breath. At the top of his lungs, he shrieked: “I! HAVE NOT! BEEN! UNHAPPY! MY WHOLE! LIFE!” “But you’re only seven,” I said.
- Nicole Krauss, The History of Love
Videos and transcript here.
Steve Wasserman: Ray Bradbury.
Ray Bradbury: Yeah.
via paperbackgirl:
Wasserman: Right. And do you remember what it was about the physical contact with books which seemed to be so exciting for you?
Bradbury: A lot of it is the smell of books. There are—a lot of those bookstores were used bookstores. Some were high-quality used books and new publications, but the other bookstores were … a lot of used books, and there’s thousands of them in there, and they were covered with dust and the smell of ancient Egypt. So, you go into a used bookstore and surprise yourself. Surprise in life should be everything. You shouldn’t know what you’re doing. You should go into a bookstore to be surprised and changed. So the bookstores change you and reveal new sides of yourself. That’s the importance of a used bookstore.
(via paperbackgirl)
Country Lodge, 2005
Oil on canvas 38” x 47”
“This is a hotel lodge left empty as the population / tourism / business left the area abandoned.”
by Kristen Schiele
via www.lmcc.net
Smoking Room, 2005
Oil on canvas 36” x 45”
“This is a room in a luxury hotel filled with women. The Scene shows smoke from the figures’ cigarettes intertwining and eclipsing each other in subtle feminine aggression.”
by Kristen Schiele
via www.lmcc.net
(via Removethatnow)
(via dilaudid)
holy shit, can I be anymore virgin than I am now?
Autechre - Dropp
