Kanye West vs. Twitter

[Jen]

This may be the first time I've found myself agreeing with the poorly-spelled, poorly-punctuated rants of Kanye West, but I think this bears repeating:

“DON’T HAVE A F****** TWITTER… WHY WOULD I USE TWITTER??? I ONLY BLOG 5 PERCENT OF WHAT I’M UP TO IN THE FIRST PLACE. I’M ACTUALLY SLOW DELIVERING CONTENT BECAUSE I’M TOO BUSY ACTUALLY BUSY BEING CREATIVE MOST OF THE TIME AND IF I’M NOT AND I’M JUST LAYING ON A BEACH I WOULDN’T TELL THE WORLD. EVERYTHING THAT TWITTER OFFERS I NEED LESS OF. THE PEOPLE AT TWITTER KNOW I DON’T HAVE A F****** TWITTER SO FOR THEM TO ALLOW SOMEONE TO POSE AS ME AND ACCUMULATE OVER A MILLION NAMES IS IRRESPONSIBLE AND DECEITFUL TO THERE FAITHFUL USERS. REPEAT… THE HEADS OF TWITTER KNEW I DIDN’T HAVE A TWITTER AND THEY HAVE TO KNOW WHICH ACCOUNTS HAVE HIGH ACTIVITY ON THEM. IT’S A F****** FARCE AND IT MAKES ME QUESTION WHAT OTHER SO CALLED CELEBRITY TWITTERS ARE ACTUALLY REAL OR FAKE. HEY TWITTER, TAKE THE SO CALLED KANYE WEST TWITTER DOWN NOW …. WHY? … BECAUSE MY CAPS LOCK KEY IS LOUD!!!!!!!!!”

Okay, obviously he's pissed off because someone posed as him over the internet. I can relate. I used to be infamous enough to have people make fake Myspaces and AIM accounts and pretend to be me. And services are always slow to remove these sites, not to mention I don't think you CAN have AIM/msn remove an account if someone's pretending to be you.

The other thing I really agree on is that annoying sites like Twitter, Myspace, and to a certain extent, everything having to be in "blog format" really stifles creativity. Truly creative people aren't on Twitter and Myspace writing pithy one-liners or listing their favourite artists because they're busy being creative.

I'm glad someone else has now said it. Good on you, Kanye West.

[jimmy]

CAPS LOCK IS CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL

And I really don't like stuff like twitter, or any of the self-absorbed blogging systems like it.

Some dude with a bunch of letters after his last name claims they're a throwback to the days of small communities, where everyone knew what everyone else was up to. Since we are all so busy and distant from one another, services like Twitter allow us to relive those times by explicitly announcing what you're doing.

Of course, I think that guy's full of shit and it's really just about people being obsessed with themselves.

[Jen]

I'm not sure who's right because I don't use Twitter. But I think who's right and who's wrong hinges on whether the self-obsesed people on Twitter actually read other people's Twitters or not.

Either way, I do think it stifles creativity.

[ryo]

Kevin Smith's on Twitter and he's made some of my favourite films ever

[Jen]

Well, maybe Zac and Miri Make a Porno would have been as funny as Dogma if he hadn't been busy writing, "Kevin needs a sandwich," "Kevin wants a Mooby Burger," "Kevin has writer's block," et cetera on Twitter.

[jimmy]

That seems like a very unfounded point to me. Someone can "be creative" and still have time to fritter away on Twitter. I work for a living and I still have time to do other things.

[Jen]

Look, it was a lighthearted post. I just think Twitter is one of the stupidest things ever invented and I do think that "social networking" sites like Twitter, Myspace, Bebo and even Blogspot have drained a lot of the creative energy from the internet.

It's not like it's the end of the world, it's just that these things keep getting stupider and stupider. We've gone from expansive, gorgeous webpages that require graphics and personal content to hideous, poorly layered crap that take 5 minutes to load, play awful music, and have little forms to fill out with a couple words about your favourite music and movies. And now we've just got "Jen needs to poop."

[jimmy]

I don't know, what you described sounds more like 1996. Today's web pages may be filled with crap, but it's a much classier kind of crap than what I saw 10-13 years ago. *shudder*

[Jen]

I didn't get onto the internet until 1999, so I wouldn't know what 1996 pages looked like.

I remember a large numbers of blood-dripping GIFs and unreadable text over image backgrounds, but it's the fill-in-the-blanks shit on Myspace that bothers me even more than the imbedded videos and music. Even if people were dumb in 1999, they had to come up with their own content, not just fill in a box.

[jimmy]

Firefox+NoScript=no more annoyances. :)

[Jen]

I found a better solution. I stopped attempting to load Myspace pages. There's nothing on there important enough to go through that kind of annoyance to see.

[jimmy]

Very true. I don't have any social networking pages at all. And I'm not missing anything!

[Jen]

I have some, but I haven't been on them for a year. I need to go through and delete all of them. I'm told employers ask to see them and I'd rather have nothing to disclose than year-old information.

Jimmy, didn't you used to have a Bebo and a Myspace?

[jimmy]

I had a Facebook and a Myspace and a LiveJournal, but I killed all of them. Somebody convinced me to get a Bebo recently but I don't remember why, and I haven't logged into it since. So, I guess that's the only one I have, although I never use it.