why twitter will rot your brain
I don't normally write negative posts, but I have to vent a little at people's Twitter usage. Previously, I have always thought that technology is blameless, and it just amplifies human flaws. E.g., if you are a lazy gossiper, you are pretty much destined to become addicted to Facebook or MSN Messenger.
Twitter is markedly different however, for the simple reason:
Twitter is *only* really useful if you use it *very* frequently. Thus, responsible and disciplined use of Twitter in a work context is almost impossble.
The same is not true of any other social media stuff. Blogs have deep and interesting articles that can be found and read at any time that I choose. If I miss my friend who I haven't seen in a year, I can see pics of what they've been up to on Facebook. I can open MSN Messenger when it suits me, have a live conversation, then close the app.
However, Twitter's only function is shallow, asynchronous conversation.
It's the same as what kids have been doing for ages - leaving MSN group conversation windows open all day and just dropping in and out over the course of a day.
You know when you first started blogging, and you only really "got it" when people started linking to you and commenting on your stuff? The "Eureka" moment for Twitter comes when you start to have conversations/responses over short (sub 1 hour) timespans.
What is so bad about this then?
If your job honestly depends on really timely information, this is fine.
Examples - journalist, ambulance dispatcher, guy sailing a boat heading rapidly towards Tower Bridge. Maybe someone running a very time sensitive online PR campaign, but I have not seen any campaigns that would justify this.
If your job involves thinking at all, Twitter is simply just another huge distraction. Not just when you are using it, but it nags your brain from your subconscious whilst you are trying to concentrate deeply on something else. Enough has been written on this, and I quote from Neil (Only Dead Fish) paraphrasing Jon Steel's Perfect Pitch:
"our modern obsession with speed and ‘always on’ connectivity reduces our ability to concentrate on the task in hand. Even if our thoughts are not already interrupted, our minds are constantly ready to be, resulting in a loss of focus."
On top of this, there just isn't anything terribly good on Twitter. I can't hand-on-heart pretend it's a help at all to my job, despite all the brightest and best of the comms and tech indusry being on it.
Put it this way, look at Stephen Fry's Twitter. He is arguably the most funny, articulate and intelligent person on this planet, but his Twitter feed basically contains utterdrivel.
I also follow the Mashable guy with the scary super close up face photo. Mashable is a great blog and resource - but dripping it out as links over 24 hours simply does not make it any better for most people!
Solutions:
a) ditch Twitter
b) total Twitter discipline. Check/refresh Twitter only at certain scheduled times, e.g. on the hour.
Conclusion
Twitter is quite fun, but for most of us, it isn't useful on a day-to-day basis, and I strongly suspect that prolonged (and therefore necessarily frequent) usage erodes your basic ability to concentrate on tasks which require actual thinking.
In other words, I am the Daily Mail and I am calling cancer on this one.
Twitter is markedly different however, for the simple reason:
Twitter is *only* really useful if you use it *very* frequently. Thus, responsible and disciplined use of Twitter in a work context is almost impossble.
The same is not true of any other social media stuff. Blogs have deep and interesting articles that can be found and read at any time that I choose. If I miss my friend who I haven't seen in a year, I can see pics of what they've been up to on Facebook. I can open MSN Messenger when it suits me, have a live conversation, then close the app.
However, Twitter's only function is shallow, asynchronous conversation.
It's the same as what kids have been doing for ages - leaving MSN group conversation windows open all day and just dropping in and out over the course of a day.
You know when you first started blogging, and you only really "got it" when people started linking to you and commenting on your stuff? The "Eureka" moment for Twitter comes when you start to have conversations/responses over short (sub 1 hour) timespans.
What is so bad about this then?
If your job honestly depends on really timely information, this is fine.
Examples - journalist, ambulance dispatcher, guy sailing a boat heading rapidly towards Tower Bridge. Maybe someone running a very time sensitive online PR campaign, but I have not seen any campaigns that would justify this.
If your job involves thinking at all, Twitter is simply just another huge distraction. Not just when you are using it, but it nags your brain from your subconscious whilst you are trying to concentrate deeply on something else. Enough has been written on this, and I quote from Neil (Only Dead Fish) paraphrasing Jon Steel's Perfect Pitch:
"our modern obsession with speed and ‘always on’ connectivity reduces our ability to concentrate on the task in hand. Even if our thoughts are not already interrupted, our minds are constantly ready to be, resulting in a loss of focus."
On top of this, there just isn't anything terribly good on Twitter. I can't hand-on-heart pretend it's a help at all to my job, despite all the brightest and best of the comms and tech indusry being on it.
Put it this way, look at Stephen Fry's Twitter. He is arguably the most funny, articulate and intelligent person on this planet, but his Twitter feed basically contains utterdrivel.
I also follow the Mashable guy with the scary super close up face photo. Mashable is a great blog and resource - but dripping it out as links over 24 hours simply does not make it any better for most people!
Solutions:
a) ditch Twitter
b) total Twitter discipline. Check/refresh Twitter only at certain scheduled times, e.g. on the hour.
Conclusion
Twitter is quite fun, but for most of us, it isn't useful on a day-to-day basis, and I strongly suspect that prolonged (and therefore necessarily frequent) usage erodes your basic ability to concentrate on tasks which require actual thinking.
In other words, I am the Daily Mail and I am calling cancer on this one.
Labels: continuous partial attention, cpa, rant, twitter
8 Comments:
Interesting post - I think I'm a CPA sufferer. Ironically I'm following you on twitter now too! Nice to see a measured critical view on Twitter.
Thanks for the comment Simon. I really worry about my loss of ability to concentrate fully on a single task for a long time, and suspect a lot of other people do too.
Couldn't say it better.
Twitter is currently undergoing it's overhyped, hyperbole phase in a similar way that facebook did about a year ago, and it feels rather yucky.
I learned not to be judgmental towards people use of social technologies but the truth is that people are binge-tweeting to the point of social addiction. These feelings of immediacy, intimacy, escapism and belonging are scarily addictive to some.
I like to think of both twitter and facebook (and IM tools) as new forms of social escapism that completely blurred the boudaries between work and (social)life. The amount of time that people spend on these platforms (on and off working hours) suggest that keeping abreast with what other people are up to become our activity of choice.
And the fact that these technologies can blend into our working lives (you can have your TweetDeck constantly open) present us with great challenge.
Self control and the good old 'good measure' are pretty rare today.
Nice post. This exact issue has been at the back of my (slowly rotting) mind since twitter day 1. Friday to be precise.
I joined to witness the hype. Now I get it, it may be time to cancel and use my accumulated twitter time for something more productive. Like writing analyses of Twitter :)
Asi - I think you are spot on with escapism. I have a general dislike of things which are designed to take us away from where we are, or what we're doing. As a mild zen hippy, I believe that the secret to happiness lies in the now, in being totally into what you're doing, rather than waiting for the next thing.
ben - I love the irony in writing analyses of twitter. It's all I can do on a hangover day like today.
Great post, thanks! I'm one of the offenders and completely spreading crap for most of the time on Twitter, but I love it and find it lots of fun - as you pointed out.
To your point and Asi's - the only thing is that it's not really new, it's just hyped at the moment. I was reminiscing earlier writing an article and thinking about using the minitel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel) when I was about 11. I was doing the same thing, chatting to people online, just making lots of noise. Then same again with Caramail chat rooms, always open in the background, dipping in and out of conversation. Same for IRC or MSN later still, etc.
It might be social escapism, but I also think it's all representative of larger shifts going on in the way we're all interacting / communicating. I don't know how it's going to look like exactly but there will certainly still be space to stop from time to time and look at what's going on rather than non stop bite size actions.
hey will. re: space to stop -- I hope so, but I fear otherwise though.
For example, I see a lot of people younger than me in agencies working on the computer with upwards of 20 windows open. e.g. 8 word docs, 6 half finished emails, 2 excels, etc. I simply do not believe this is an efficient working practice, and that to work in a focussed way with only the right tools at hand, and no clutter is a much better way to get better work in less time. Yet I believe this "half-on" mindset is what is perpetuated by asynchronous, partial-participation media such as Twitter.
F@#k, I sound old! F%$king kids with sh*tloads of f*+king windows open!
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