Read on Twitter
The most challenging twitter skill relates to its central design flaw:
Twitter is built so people will talk at you.
This is NOT the same as talking TO you, which also happens, and results in some nice conversations sometimes.
Twitter is built so people will talk at you.
This is NOT the same as talking TO you, which also happens, and results in some nice conversations sometimes.
But lots of the time, people want to talk at you.
Because something you said roused their defensiveness
Because they want your acknowledgement
Because they want some of your audience's attention
Because they like talking and would prefer other people hear them instead of you
Because something you said roused their defensiveness
Because they want your acknowledgement
Because they want some of your audience's attention
Because they like talking and would prefer other people hear them instead of you
Twitter is a den of sea lions.
So what's the skill?
Sometimes, when people talk at you, the best response...
Is no response at all. The platform has manipulated them into an engagement that's not serving you. You're already in the red on this. Don't go further into debt
So what's the skill?
Sometimes, when people talk at you, the best response...
Is no response at all. The platform has manipulated them into an engagement that's not serving you. You're already in the red on this. Don't go further into debt
The trouble with Twitter and many social platforms is that you have a sense of ownership over your words and ideas, but once you release them into the aetherâŠ
They belong to everyone
They're everyone's to willfully misinterpret, step on like a soap box, react, contort, revise
They belong to everyone
They're everyone's to willfully misinterpret, step on like a soap box, react, contort, revise
Twitter has TOM SAWYERED your ass to manufacture widgets for other users to engage with, and because they pay you with hearts and an audience, you think you're working for yourself!
You're not
That's okayâif you figure out how to make the economics work for you other ways.
You're not
That's okayâif you figure out how to make the economics work for you other ways.
Ignoring the sputtering sea lions is difficult. It's hardly a skill I've mastered, and Twitter absolutely doesn't want me ever to figure it out
Every beef on here ticks up figures in a score card spreadsheet somewhere that Twitter uses to wow advertisers and Wall Street.
Every beef on here ticks up figures in a score card spreadsheet somewhere that Twitter uses to wow advertisers and Wall Street.
Now maybe you're reading this and feeling a chill in your belly. Maybe you're worried YOU have been talking at people and they don't like it.
I GUARANTEE you you have. I have too! The platform wants us to. The software manipulates us into sea lioning.
I GUARANTEE you you have. I have too! The platform wants us to. The software manipulates us into sea lioning.
But maybe you don't want to be that (reply) guy.
Maybe you want more talking TO, and less talking AT. The best discussion I have seen on this is by @visakanv, summarized perfectly here: https://twitter.com/visakanv/status/1039420186586038273
Maybe you want more talking TO, and less talking AT. The best discussion I have seen on this is by @visakanv, summarized perfectly here: https://twitter.com/visakanv/status/1039420186586038273
The internet requires social skills, like any social context.
But what's unique about the internet is how much platform owners, through greed or incompetence, actively design to override the formation of those skills.
Still, you gotta learn 'em anyway.
But what's unique about the internet is how much platform owners, through greed or incompetence, actively design to override the formation of those skills.
Still, you gotta learn 'em anyway.
