Facebook & Twitter: Nosy Attention Whores?

[IndigoSensor]

This video (imbeded is at bottom) kind of sparked me to think to ask this. Why do people like twitter and facebook so much? (the video is about twitter, but it can very easily be applied to facebook as well).

For me, it allows me to be nosy (I'm a very nosy person). By nature, I want to know everything about everyone, really just for the sake of knowing. The thing is though, I am very secretive and discreet about it, so no one knows this. On facebook, I read everything someone posts and says (with the exception of silly apps and games). I also actually read most everything inside there profile, there about me, music, quotes, ect. I am also addicted to posting stuff. I keep my facebook rather active. I respond to peoples posts', status', ect. I update my status freqently. However, I do watch what I say as to not sound phony, egotistical, depressed, or attention-seeking. I also don't use twitter. This is because I see my facebook status as twitter, and don't see the need for twitter. Having twitter would make me anal retentive with updating facebook and twitter exactly the same at the same time. Despite the fact that I would love to post on my facebook status every little detail of everything that I am doing, much like the guy in the start of the video, I can't bring myself to do that. It seems extremely egotistical and shallow, and I don't want to be seen that way.

The reason I post so much is not really for attention. I just like the fact that someone is actually reading what I am saying, and is aware of what is going on with me. I assume that there are a handful of people on there that read what I say along with what everyone else says, and actually has an intelectualized thought about it (as I usually do when I read what someone else says)

Now, I would venture to guess that most people aren't like me where they are just nosy about people. It seems like most people that do post on facebook and twitter are just using it as a tool to vent and fill a small social-need hole that they might have at the moment. It is something to do. It seems like most people that use twitter and facebook alot either need more attention then they already get (even if that ammount is high to start with), or it is a way for people to be social and express themselves where they would otherwise be unconfortable.

In the video. I agree with both sides. Yes people have become attention-whores about very trivial things, but it is also new way to socialize and share information without having to jump through the hoops of social navigation. I do disagree though, that people on facebook and twitter lack friends. Somepeople might, but not everyone. I very much love facebook, and the idea of twitter.

So what are your thoughts and feelings on this? Do you use facebook and or twitter? If so how much, how do you use it, do you like it, ect.? What kind of thoughts and feelings does the video spark for you? Discuss.

[YOUTUBE]PN2HAroA12w[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Deleted member 1391]

I use both.

Facebook is just a tidy, well organised and extremely functional site that allows me to keep in contact with people I know in a convenient manner. Some of my family live half ways across the world.

I also use Twitter, and I think it's a very underestimated resource. It's been responsible for breaking some huge news stories to the world in the last year, and keeping people updated in an extremely fast way. It's an extremely useful tool for the press to communicate with each other through, a facet of Twitter which many might not be aware of.

Personally, I use Twitter to get news from my website out to the wider gaming public. It's a fast, quick, and convenient way of doing so. I don't think Twitter is effective if you want to chat with people on a personal level, which is one thing I agree with you on.

I also have my Facebook hooked up to Twitter. Any status that go through Twitter automatically appear on my Facebook. This is handy when I'm out and about and need to inform someone of something.

Despite the fact that I would love to post on my Facebook status every little detail of everything that I am doing, much like the guy in the start of the video, I can't bring myself to do that. It seems extremely egotistical and shallow, and I don't want to be seen that way.

You don't have to update your Twitter with every single tiny little thing that you do. I know I certainly don't. How you use it is entirely up to you, and you'd be surprised how much you can put into 140 spaces.

 

[Jayce]

First, I'd like to say that I absolutely love SuperNews and Current TV.

Second, I only use Facebook. I usually log in once or twice a day for a little while to check my notifications. I like changing my status message (I like to see how clever I can get with them). It's usually something silly and vaguely related to what's going on in my life. I'll check my college message board and maybe leave a friend a comment. I usually don't linger on my friends pages because I kind of don't want too see what they have been up to. I often get left out of a lot of things so looking just makes me feel bad.

I never liked Twitter. I agree with Indigo that it's just another FB status message. No need for me to update two of em'. I think Twitter is better suited for blog and news updates. My dad spends a fair amount of time of Twitter because I think it makes him feel important. He likes being able to follow celebrities and have important people follow him. He brags about it too.

I don't put a lot of private stuff on FB because I don't like people being all up in my business. People have become more of exhibitionistic with their lives but they're not all attention-whores. If people wanna publicize their lives online, that's fine but you know what? I probably won't be paying attention.

If it's that important I'd expect a friend to call me or at least text me.

 

[midnightmelody]

Hehe Indigo, your posts bring me so much joy in an odd way. It's like seeing my brain (in a sense). I don't use twitter for that exact reason. Usually when I am on facebook I am chatting with one of my good friends, as we tend to be on. I love facebook though, especially in the summer....and I really miss my sisters. being in my house with just my parents is a very unhealthy environment! Anywho,
Status updating is really fun though. In fact, I often recieve compliments on my witty/offbeat/clever status updates, haha. It's a hobby I guess you could say.
hehe me too Jayce. Meeee tooooo. If I'm upset I like to put it in an enigmatic way.

and I post on here for the same reason. *high fives to Indigo*

 

[slant]

I don't use either. I have a myspace that I used to use but stopped using when I decided I liked verbal communication better than emails. I also had only 7 or so friends, used to have more but my mother forced me to delete my myspace because of an friend I talked to who was a 'bad influence'. I see no appeal to twitter or facebook, frankly, they seem like a down graded, shittier version of Myspace and myspace sucks. What I really want to be added to myspace is a feature that will let you deface people--like a yearbook, you are allowed to draw crap on their picutes and completely mutilate it. That's what I did with the only yearbook I got- my mom was pissed too because apparently she bought it for me but for herself? Mm, I dunno.

 

[Orion]

I love reading the info page on Facebook. Music and films etc. It's always awesome when you see the page full of text! Especially if it's a hot girl. Then you get people who are like "Uh, lik evrythin rly...." which is annoying. Or of course you have people with such offensive tastes in films you wanna wash your eyes out with bleach- i think my friend has Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift as one of his favourite films. I still haven't broken his fingers for that yet. I'll get on it.

 

[J. Cardigan]

Facebook is a way for me to waste time and a convenient method of knowing about/organizing parties and social functions. I basically keep mine around because all of my friends have one and it's an easy way to keep track of new friends. Every so often I'll get bored and go through all of someone's pictures, but it is a function of me being bored and not because I'm incredibly nosy.

Twitter is fucking dumb and I'll never get one.

I still like Myspace but I seem to be the odd man out on that one. My friends will update theirs every so often but mine generally stays the same. It's just much more private than facebook and I don't feel obligated to check it every day.

 

[elysium]

I know exactly what you mean about being nosy on Facebook. I primarily use Facebook to be nosy. Except, like you, I'm very secretive about it. I don't update my status often (if at all) and I rarely post things on people's walls (or respond to posts on my wall). I also am always "offline" on that chat thing. But every once in a while (when I'm bored or meet a new, interesting person) I'll skulk around Facebook being nosy/stalkery. But no one every knows and of course I don't talk about it. Haha

As for Twitter, I started it as sort of a journal (because I like having to make my statements concise so that I don't ramble like on something such as Livejournal). I don't tell people I have a Twitter account and I certainly don't give away my screen name (although I few people have found me because my full name is listed). It's simply a nice way to privately discharge my thoughts whenever one pops into my head.

Although, I suppose I could do that in some word document on my computer, but there really is something about the format of Twitter and that fact that it's "out there" for someone to read if they so chose to (even...and preferably...if they were a stranger).

It makes me feel private, but less alone. My thoughts are pent-up in my head most of the time and it's rather nice to let some of them out into the world.

 

[Eric86]

I'd never use Twitter, and I rarely ever use Facebook; I only use it to chat with a couple people. Once in a great while I'll do a few quizzes if I'm really bored, but that's about it.

 

[corvidae]

Twitter has all the limitations of text-messaging with none of the benefits of a computer.
Facebook is a useful tool in more ways than one. I keep track of my albums and reading history via Livingsocial on facebook.

 

[v.shadow]

I really HATE facebook (for an unsociable paranoid like myself, it's the black death!). I created it a while ago but now when people ask for my facebook account I just say that I destroyed it for my own sake.

respect to twitter, I have one but I only use it to stalk some music groups or artists (dunno why, but I always get followed by porn sites )

 

[Faye]

Twitter- I've never used it and think it is stupid.
facebook- I use to talk to friends, and that is it really.

 

[Nemo]

I have Facebook but it's pretty bare. I have a few photos of me one it but I never update my status or write anything on it. I don't have Twitter either. To me it just seems like a waste of time (and a tad narcissistic), and to be frank, I'm just not interesting enough to have Twitter.

What I really want to be added to myspace is a feature that will let you deface people--like a yearbook, you are allowed to draw crap on their picutes and completely mutilate it. That's what I did with the only yearbook I got- my mom was pissed too because apparently she bought it for me but for herself? Mm, I dunno.

Have I ever told you how much I enjoy reading your posts?

 

[Deleted member 1391]

I'm extremely perplexed about people's attitude towards Twitter.

Sure, on the surface, it may appear to be inane and half-arsed, but there is much more to it than that. If you're gonna simply use it as an ego-stroking status message updater, you're missing the whole point. If you're hoping that by shouting into the dark, you're gonna be heard, you'll be quickly disappointed by the service.

What has made it useful? It's potentially the most powerful news service in the world. Twitter doesn't disallow linking to things, and during major world events, Twitter has been famous for getting that information out to the world faster than any news service ever could. Even the Red Cross uses it to keep people up to date on local disasters.

It's become so huge that the media itself is using it to get its news out there, and it was famously reported that the government requested Twitter to stay up (when it was planing to go down for maintenance) when events in Iraq were heating up recently.

Very few people actually use Twitter as a "LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!" tool.

Give it a chance. Follow a few pages that relate to things that interest you. You might end up being pleasantly surprised.

 

[Nela]

I don't use Facebook nor Twitter, simply because I currently don't feel the need for it. Actually I don't have much of an opinion about Twitter because I don't know enough about it. I'm not very interested in Facebook however. When I tell people I don't use Facebook, they usually look at me like I've just killed a puppy. The case is, I'm perfectly fine without it.

My impression is that most people don't like it all that much either. When I ask someone why they have it, they all seem to answer: 'Well, yeah, everybody kept asking me why I didn't have Facebook, so I got tired of it and signed myself up too, but actually I barely use it'.

In my circle of acquaintances I'm beginning to get the impression that they see this whole Facebook thing as nothing more than a means for 'collecting friends', and this is exactly what I don't like about it. When I hear people bragging about their 800 friends on Facebook, I feel just, I don't know.. sad. I can't believe that for some people this is what it's all about these days. I myself need deep and meaningful relationships with people, and the friends that are important to me will inform me face to face about what's going on with them. I'm not all that interested in what the friend of the friend of my niece's boyfriend has been doing over the weekend, or the children I knew in kindergarten, if you know what I mean.. But that's just my opinion. I guess maybe I'm just not a very nosy person

I do think FB can be useful when you have friends, relatives, etc. that live far away, but I think for most people that's not the main reason for using these things. Also I just don't feel all that comfortable informing the entire world about what's going on in my life, and even if I would be I'd be asking myself why anyone would be interested

 

[Lune Froide]

You covered my general feelings toward facebook and twitter, Indigo. I usually have the option to chat turned off though because it breeds some of the most irritating conversations of my life. It is like browsing while shopping and having an employee constantly coming back around to ask if you're sure you don't need help. It's THAT kind of irritating.
This is also why I hardly ever have a working cellphone. Text messaging results is a similar annoyance for me, haha!

 

[necoconeco126]

I have a Facebook account that I do use often. I tried out twitter (mainly to follow others' accounts, but I'm really slacking on following) but it didn't work out well...

Anyways, I have about fifty facebook friends. I don't really add "friends of a friend", because I don't log on to keep in contact with them...I just wanna know what's up with the people I actually know. I have photo albums of things like the last day of school, the anime convention I went to, and an outing with a significant amount of people. I do quizzes and stuff like that when I'm bored to pass the time. I'll chat with some of my closer friends. That's really kinda it though.

 

[rhinker]

OP quote: "This is because I see my facebook status as twitter, and don't see the need for twitter. Having twitter would make me anal retentive with updating facebook and twitter exactly the same at the same time."

I am the same way. I have Facebook and Twitter, but I never update them at the same time. I know more people on Facebook. I mostly respond to other people's tweets (Sometimes I find them interesting, if I know the person or situation well, other times I don't care. Especially if the person tweets every 5 seconds) and use them to keep up with Rhett and Link (a comedy duo on YouTube I'm a huge fan of) and other bands/promotional organizations. I mostly like it for the updates I get, not the updates I give. Facebook is more for giving updates.

 

[Pristinegirl]

Haha I just entered the twittersphere yesterday and I actually love it so far http://twitter.com/Thepristinegirl I think that twitter-people feel like they have a part, like they make a difference, like what one thinks/says means something and it enables me to have a WORLDLY connection wherever I am

With facebook it took loads of time before I got the hang of it, but now I mainly see it as a social networking mean.

 

[Pristinegirl]

HAHAHAHAHAHA