Yep, I got to the end. I may have to revisit Twitter. Have you published some (or could you publish some) of the people/entities you follow, or can I see that in Twitter? Also, and sorry if this has been answered already, how do you watch that river flow by and sample it?
Cheers, Don From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Craig Froehle Sent: Sunday, February 28, 2010 8:19 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Treo] buyer as beta tester` Thanks for all the input. I'll combine two issues in one email (if you'll forgive my threadmashing): Psychologists have found that, in general, an individual's mental flexibility and willingness to accept new paradigms decreases as they age past around 30-35 years or so (although this inflection point varies across individuals). This change occurs fairly gradually, not all at once, and manifests in ways like reading more of a certain kind of literature (and avoiding others more concertedly), trying fewer new activities (but doing more of what he/she already enjoys), looking less for new people to communicate with (although close friends tend to become even closer), and so on. I've noticed the same thing happens fairly often with technology. Some people I knew who were bleeding-edge early adopters become less eager to get the latest and greatest, especially if it requires changing how they interact with the technology and/or what they use it for (that's the paradigm-rigidity aspect of this). In contrast, nobody I know has ever become MORE flexible/adaptable regarding technology as they get older. While this, like any psychosocial influence, is neither universal nor absolute (i.e., not everyone exhibits this trend), in general, it seems to be a non-trivial influence on many individuals' attitudes towards new tech. Now, about Twitter. I was interested in the metaphors used to describe it. The fact that people can look at Twitter and see it in so many different ways fascinates me. I am what you might call a fairly heavy Twitter user (12,020 tweets since early 2008) and the metaphors I use to describe it have evolved over that time. When I first heard about Twitter, I scoffed..."why would I want to do that??" I asked. Then, when I first started using it, I subscribed to a couple dozen people I actually knew (in meatspace or very well online) and I was diligent about reading every tweet they posted. I would log in and scroll back through the history until I got back to where I'd left off before. But I, personally, began to find some very interesting people and information sources on Twitter that I didn't know personally (or weren't even people). After subscribing to several of those, and seeing my Twitter social network expand to nearly a hundred or so, there just wasn't enough time to read every single post by everyone I was following. It was at that point that I had a decision to make: either trim back my friends (those who I follow) or adopt a new strategy. I went for the latter and followed what I call the "river" or "coffee shop" metaphors. Now, I see Twitter as a river of information, flowing past 24/7. There's simply no way I can appreciate every drop of information, so I enjoy it when I can -- when I have time, I stick a toe in and read what's happening. Then, I leave the bank and let the water keep on flowing. The nice thing about Twitter is that I can follow a conversation if I want to. The other metaphor is a coffeeshop, but one where I get to pick who comes in (because of the asymmetric nature of the friend/follower relationships on Twitter). When I walk in the door, there are many conversations going on and people posting announcements up on the bulletin board, and I can join in and read as I choose. One comment was that Twitter doesn't have conversations. I'd say that depends a lot on who you follow; many who I've friended are very chatty and I've had many discussions with over a dozen back-and-forths. Granted, it's not right for long missives like this one, but then every medium influences the message in some way. Thanks for reading this (if you got this far). :-) On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 9:00 AM, Tony Cooke <[email protected] <mailto:tonyjcooke%40talktalk.net> > wrote: > On 27/02/2010 21:41, Craig Froehle wrote: >> >> >> Just curious. Those of you who agree, what are your ages (w/in 5 >> years)? I have a theory about aging and its effect on willingness to >> adopt new technology, and you all might help reinforce, or refine, >> that theory if you don't mind sharing. > > > Well, I have a foot in both camps!! But then I`m 72 next month. > > :-) > > Bring back the Commodore Pet (with 16k memory) I say! > > :-) > > -- > Tony Cooke > www.tonycooke.co.uk > contactable at tony.j.cookeATgooglemailDOTcom > A chicken is an egg's way of producing more eggs. > > > ------------------------------------ > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
