I find myself contemplating Twitter and whether it allows me the freedom to communicate with a large network or if it’s actually turning me in to a couch potato hybrid. Many in the food blog community have embraced Twittering and I’m still feeling around to see if it’s right for me. On the days I Twitter, I find myself less focused on may daily tasks. I periodically (i.e. constantly) check to see who has responded to my tweets and what insightful tweets I may have missed. Before I know it, I’ve skipped lunch and risk missing dinner.
For me, Twitter is a fairly new social network. I’ve been using LinkedIn to maintain business relationships and Facebook for casual communication with close friends/family, while Twitter remains a much larger ‘extended’ network of friends, acquaintances, and interesting people. I only have 474 followers and follow 728. Many people have well over a thousand followers and the Twitterati can easily have in the tens of thousands.
So, it’s got me thinking — how were we spending our time before Twitter and how much time is spent actually on Twitter?
Tweetwasters helps me to answer the latter part of this question. By entering your Twitter ID, the site will analyze your tweets and calculate an approximate amount of time you’ve spent on Twitter. Using the popular (and one of my favorite people to follow) Daniel Rowse of @Problogger, it’s estimated that he’s posted over 10k tweets. Estimating 30 seconds per Tweet, that is equivalent to 3.57 days. Granted, this does not take into account the idle time spent reading Tweets etc.
Source: Tweetwasters.com
It’s important to note that while Darren is a prolific Twitter user — there are those who spend a much greater amount of time Twittering. The Tweetwasters Hall of Fame ranks @koizuka as wasting just over 44 days.
While my wasted time is equivalent to only a couple hours, I try and shrug it off as not my problem. But then something in the pit of my stomach tells me that this is potentially a big issue — what are people not doing that Twittering now replaces? And, is using Twitter like removing ice-cream from your diet only to replace it with apple pie?
Tweetrush calculates the number of Tweets per day. According to Tweetrush, Twitter was averaging about 1.9M Tweets per day during the past six days. If I assume 30 seconds per Tweet, this turns out to be 15,833 hours. This amount of time is equivalent to 5 people working 8 hours per day for an entire year.
Source: screenshot of Tweetrush.com
Imagine the advancements in medicine if an additional 5 doctors worked full time for a year on studying cancer or diabetes. What if 5 people were to spend a year building a new food bank or better yet, building homes for Habitat for Humanity. And remember, this is just the amount of time spent on Twitter per day. Over the course of a year, the amount of time spent on Twitter is staggering. And, it’s growing.
While some people use Twitter to spur their businesses, the vast majority are randomly socializing. Yes, we do discover bits of new and interesting information but what that same amount of time were spent doing something else. I wonder if my few hours could have been better spent.
Unfortunately, it’s not an easily answered question but I’m wondering, what if we didn’t Twitter?
Please feel free to leave your thoughts — I look forward to hearing what others think (i.e. Allen, just shut up and log off Twitter). :-)
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{ 11 comments }
Mmmm, I just saw your tweet. I guess that is one advantage to being on Twitter, getting more traffic to your blog. But I follow your blog already so I guess it doesn’t count? I do socialize on Twitter, but also learn a lot from other people retweeting articles they find important. Computers, in general, take so much time out of your day. You really have to learn to balance what is important to you, otherwise it can be such a waste. I think moderation is what is best in everything!
Well for one- I blog less. Given the general blather I’m prone to spewing, I can’t argue against that being a BAD thing, though.
But I will say this- despite the higher number of twits I follow, I ultimately feel LESS connected. Instead of sending an honest letter, placing a phone call or scripting an e-mail, I stick to 140 character drive by’s. tweeting just seems easier, I guess.
Good thoughts in here. Maybe tomorrow I’ll actually take a minute to talk TO someone, instead of @them.
I joined and tried to get into it but alas, I spend enough time on the computer already without having to document my every single move….personally, I find it as annoying as Facebook. I think in the future everyone will seek 15 minutes of privacy!
I joined and tried to tweet, but found it annoying too. do ppl really care that i’m making apple pie one moment or that i’m stuck in traffic the next? and do i really want to know that someone woke up late and is drinking coffee?
I tried using it more to see what the fuss was all about, but really, it was just a waste of time for me. I understand its faster, easier and requires less time than writing a blog post – but … I’m not a fan! Maybe one day I’ll be proven wrong and find it was the most amazing social networking site, but for now its on the “if-i-have-nothing-else-to-do-and-i’m-in-the-mood” list.
I’ve been thinking the same thing. I’ve been noticing more and more food bloggers are adding Twitter as an additional way to connect with their readers. I’m also noticing some of my traffic is starting to come from people tweeting my articles. But, should I do the same thing? I thought it would be a great way to give my opinions of interesting restaurants. But do I really want people to know the number of times I go to Chinese buffets in week? All food for thought I guess.
I dont tweet for that reason, I waste plenty of time on facebook, blogging, emailing, looking on flickr and message boards!
I haven’t gone to Tweeter or Facebook yet — that’s how I know I’m getting old. I don’t seem to want to “adapt” to new technologies now. ;)
I’m still on the fence with it. I twittered a bit today and tried to understand if I really enjoy it or not. I definetly like the voyeur aspect of watching thoughts/comments/info scroll by – I think this is what appeals to me most.
Someone pointed out this this, Twistori that creates a scrolling feed of tweets that contain certain verbs (i.e. Love, Think, Hate). It’s an interesting, slightly poetic, site.
twitter: I don’t know. I can’t imagine being stuck at the computer and typing and typing and typing every move I make!
I don’t tweet every meal or activity. I actually keep the number of people I’m following to the bloggers I interact with regularly or other SoCal bloggers. The former b/c they actually talk to me. The latter b/c it keeps me clued in on some restaurant buzz or general happenings around me. I used to try and treat it like a bulletin board, but that didn’t seem to work so well.
It has made me interact with SoCal food bloggers more. On the flip side, I notice they comment less on my posts since they already “tweet” with me regularly.
Keeping it small but manageable has worked OK for me. I can’t imagine following as many people as you do! I also unfollow frequent twitterers since that just clogs up my stream and gives me a headache trying to make sense of it all. I guess the people who follow so many people don’t actually read all the tweets? B/c if they do, it’d be insane.
Well! This comment turned out longer than expected.
I was introduced to Twitter when I first got my iPhone last year. The premis seemed interesting, “What are you doing?”.
For the next several months I spent alot of time Twittering about what I was doing, taking pictures of where I was at and uploading to TwitPic. I started following several hundred people.
Then it started to turn into an Instant Messenger. People were starting conversations with me, when in the the start I literally used it as a one-way device. So I started conversing with people on Twitter. There are fare more efficient methods of IM rather than Twitter.
Today, I use it to announce posts on my food blog and on my personal blog. I use the search features to look for info on various topics and I’ll look up certain people from time to time.
I have found that since Twittering my posts, I have way more people following me these days, not in the thousands as you have found in your research, but following the text of more than 30 people in my opinion is just flotsam! :)