Declaring Twitter bankruptcy
I know I’ve got more than 10,250 tweets. I know that I tweet (or used to) a lot. But I’ve come to the realization that I can’t really check everything that is going on. I love Twitter, don’t get me wrong. I love it because it has given me a chance to create friendships, establish business relationships, broaden the scope and readership of my blog, amongst many other things.
But I’m going to change my strategy. I can’t read everything backwards, so I’m just going to pick up the conversation where I can, and not try to catch up. I know that to many people, 185 is not a lot to follow (I use Twhirl instead of TweetDeck), but to me, it’s getting to the point where it’s impossible. And if you’ve noticed (if you’re following me), my tweet ratio is coming down. A LOT.
From where I was (and I recognized I was rather noisy) to right now, the number of tweets I send has gone down substantially. Not only because I have way too much on my plate, but also because I can’t function like this. So, I’ll be checking my @ replies but the overall timeline, I’ll just take it from wherever I arrive.
Related posts:
- The implicit trust in the new RT function on Twitter
- On the use of Twitter for personal interaction
- New to Twitter? Use a Twitter client
- The Twitter lost followers
- Those Twitter interactions
I have started doing the exact same thing. Obviously I check my @’s and subscribe to my name via Summize, but I just pick up the Twitter stream when I log in and start from there. “Going back” is a killer.
I’ve purposefully tried to keep the number of people I follow to around the 100 mark, otherwise I think it becomes rather useless as a way to keep in touch and see what everyone is up to.
That’s what I normally do. check the pas few minutes, check replies and direct messages and just carry on.
Can’t recall the history over a certain period of time and if I did I’d have no time to do anything else!
Yep, I’m doing what Duane’s doing. Keeping the number of followed to a reasonably manageable level. I’m ignoring any Twitterquette that tells me I must follow everybody who follows me.
I think if more people used DM instead of @ replies, there’d be less exhaust data to wade through. Less tweets that basically amount to “OMG, me too” or “that’s funny.” Sometimes I’ll see people tweeting a string of @ replies and it just looks like they’re responding to personal emails, which to me is oversharing, and grounds for unfollowing. When in doubt, DM.
If I’m speaking directly to only one person, I’ll either DM or IM them rather than force all my followers to have to listen to my private conversations (unless it’s something I think people would find amusing). People who are unremittingly @tty are like the people shouting into their cell phones on the bus – nobody wants to hear that. I wish more people observed this etiquette. JMHO.
These days I am tweeting less, but putting more thought into what I say. I’ll just can’t bring myself to be one of those people who uses Twitter to say “good morning” or “good night.” I don’t email or IM everyone I know and tell them good morning and good night each day, so I don’t really understand why people do that on Twitter.
But hey, who am I to tell people how to use the service? Again, JMHO.
I had to do that as well. So freeing! I’m of the school that if you really want to talk to people, email them or IM them. Twitter is not a catch-all application. Personally, I hate it when people tweet dozen of consecutive tweets, run on sentences, because they can’t cover it in 140 characters. Drives me nuts. That’s called a BLOG POST.
I can’t believe you actually went back and read all the tweets you missed when you weren’t online! That’s dedication… or craziness, I’m not sure which! I think of Twitter as an in-the-moment kind of thing. If I’m not on Twitter when something happens, the moment has passed so no need to look back!