Accurate and entertaining depiction of what “The Social Network” would have been like if it was based on Twitter instead. Corollary: I hate Foursquare.
Posts Tagged ‘twitter’
Please Rob Me!
Thursday, February 18th, 2010I always knew the internet was a lot of things, but I NEVER thought anyone would use it with malicious intent. Well, my expectations have been shattered by a website that brings to light how easy it is for someone to stalk you / see when you aren’t home and then steal the things you love.
</sarcasm>
I feel like if you didn’t realize that constantly, publicly, announcing your location was grounds for being robbed raped and pillaged (arrr!) then you are and idiot. I understand there are probably arguments out there against this being an issue, but what it all comes down to is making yourself an easy target. You can say “well people can break in whenever they want” or “if they really want to steal from me they will be able to just see when I leave.” This is true unless you are a CEO, famous athlete, JHM, etc and thus more of a target than a normal person. Outside of fitting into that criteria, why should a person bother to care that other people know their name, address, when they are home, or other things?
Well.. if I am looking for a place to steal shit from, and there are two houses on a block, one with a sign on it that says “no one is home!” and one that has nothing posted.. which one will I go to? Yeah, exactly. A bit of an exaggerated point, but if you narrow your twitter feed, looking for people in a specific region that aren’t home, then use their twitter account to find their facebook, linked in, google account or anywhere else their address is posted.. you now have an open invite and can probably figure out exactly how much time you have to peruse their belongings based on where they are “checked in.” Or, the best status message, “in Hawaii for a week!” shows them they have an entire week to scope the place out and pick the best time to walk in to steal your shit.
Everyone should furthermore appreciate this stupidity in light of how just a few short years ago everyone was worried about posting their LAST NAME online somewhere.. let alone addresses or phone numbers. Amazing how we went from being tentative to state our last name on a profile or IM account, for fear they could look us up in a phone book. <- remember those? I do, because they still freaking come to my house. But I digress, that is an argument for another day.
So we’ve moved from that mentality briskly into announcing every piece of contact information about ourselves and on top of that where we are at all times! Besides being robbed, if a dude (you might not even know them, maybe they found your pic online and liked what they saw) wants to stalk you, find you at a bar or whatever, you are paving the road for them. Nicely done.
I must be taking crazy pills here but I can’t be the only one who realizes how stupid this is right?! People gobble shit shit up as soon as the newest ’social networking app’ is released. Immediately adopting allows them to be on the forefront of whatever, and cooler cause they can say ‘oh I’ve been using it for months, its awesome you should check it out.’ Other reasons I can think of for using these apps in this manner include but are not limited to, bragging about what they are doing (I include myself amongst people guilty of this) and ‘everyone else doing it.’
I know there are probably more arguments against my point of view, so let me have it, I’m interested. (And “getting points” or “being a mayor” on foursquare does not count.)
I almost never post anything because, frankly, I don’t think I have anything worth saying to the world that often. I do however use it to read what other people (athletes, teams, ski resorts, etc) have to say, occasionally ask a question or do what most people do with it; post something inane because I feel like it. That is why my last post was 82 days ago. Do people really think that others care what you had for breakfast? Unless maybe you are Shaq or something, but even then, really?
Kenny Mayne is Kind of Funny (This Once)
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009Mayne Street, Twitter
twitter, v2
Monday, March 30th, 2009More discussion on twitter in response to that last post:
—————————————
Andy, to me:
I guess it depends on your definition of “ghost writer”. I tend to think of them as “literate”. But I suppose if you don’t employ that definition, than yes, Pierce might have one as well.
me, to Andy:
I hope you aren’t saying this is literate then:
http://twitter.com/THE_REAL_SHAQ
Andy, to me:
Jesus. It must be his fucking cousin, or infant child or something.
me, to Andy:
I actually didn’t mind twitter at first, I didn’t understand it (it’s basically away messages, same as facebook, AIM, gchat, right?) but without the additional usefulness of those applications. Am I missing something? But after seeing it become “mainstream” as in everyone freaking out and talking about it, I kind of hate it, because its in my face all the time. And now famous people use it, and are either idiots themselves revealed on it, or idiots for having other idiots write for them. Brutal.
Andy, to me:
That’s what I’m saying. It has clearly jumped the shark several times over. Fact: if Britney Spears thinks something is cool, it’s bad for society and an insult to the intelligence of mankind. Britney Spears thinks twitter is cool. Or at least her publicist does, which I think is just as bad.
But generally, what is the point? To see what other people are doing all the time (who cares?) To tell people what you’re doing all the time (who cares?) Can you put up a “tweet” that just reads, “reading tweets”, or will the whole system explode?
Theoretically, isn’t that what everyone’s doing when they’re on twitter, so realistically everyone’s message should read the same thing, making twitter no longer relevant? If everyone has a truthful away message that reads, “reading away messages,” then nobody’s communicating and the system becomes obsolete. This is all very philosophical, but I think it applies here.
