GoldbergBlog

When Do We Get Better Twitter?

Some have revolted against Twitter on premise alone: that microblogging is stupid and it promotes the innaties of our lives and turns us into narcisstic douchebags.

That is a valid (albeit highly cynical and narrow-minded) viewpoint.

Of course, I like to view Twitter as a tool.  It can be used for mundane ramblings, but it can also be used for promotion of one’s content, important stories, and as a quick way of sharing ideas.  I also like that it’s almost a challenge and encourages the brevity of wit.

And as to the point about it being narcisstic and mundane, I would like to point out that we have always been the stars of our own lives and just as we would accept narration in a book or a film, we shouldn’t disdain ourselves so heavily that we think our lives aren’t worth mentioning.  In a weird way, I think the Internet encourages all of us to scream our voices due to its high population.  We need the world to know we existed even if it was only in a minor fashion. Does this encourage us to remain comfortable in uneventful lives by inflating the banal into the adventurous?  Perhaps.  But it could also function as a means of realization and spur people on to actual adventures.  Like most things, it all depends on the user.

Some cynics may find such explanations laughable.  We can tell people that they’re not that interesting and that we don’t care that they’re having a ham sandwich but who is forced to read or use Twitter?  Why should anyone’s private hobby, as long as it doesn’t actively cause harm to another, get under your skin?

“It’s part of the downfall of society!” you cry.  You know, we’ve made it through public executions and using black people as property.  I think we’ll survive microblogging.

What I want to survive is inferior microblogging.  MySpace is to Facebook as Twitter is to whatever’s next and I want whatever’s next to be now.  Here’s a list of ten obvious features that Twitter could easily implement and so far they’ve managed to do about one and a half.  Is auto-fill that difficult?  Embedded links are just impossible?  I understand that there’s a consideration to be able to use it via your phone but sometimes you don’t get to do everything through your phone.  It sucks but it happens.

And I know there are desktop clients that have some of these features but it’s why should I have to download software when Twitter should have done all this crap yesterday.  I’m not looking for a massive overhaul–I’m looking for obvious features that they won’t implement either due to lack of funds (which is hard to believe given the amount of capital they’ve received and attention they currently hold) or due to lack of expertise.   Or maybe they’re just too busy fighting with the goddamned Fail-whale and micro issues to actually make the service better and are simply struggling to make it function.  They’ve come up with a good idea and they’re failing at the execution.  And that means someone’s going to take their idea and do it better and I’m waiting for that site to not only come along but for everyone on Twitter to pack up their shit and move to the better site.

In the meantime, I’ll just have to occasionally bitch about it in 140 characters or less.