In “our days”, IRC was also a broadcast medium, “subscribers” being on a common channel. But we had a lot more depth in whatever topics we covered in short messages exchanged. How many thousands of hours have we spent in intense, thought-provoking discussions on a gazillion subjects?

Nowadays, try talking with a teenager:
“So, what are you doing?”
“Just chillin’.”
“What were you working on?”
“Stuff.”
“How about that ?”
“Meh.”

The point is that, if the current generations were able to put together a sentence more complex than the 160 characters of a text, the technology to satisfy this requirement would have been dominant. But the fact that Twitter is so hugely successful is only an indicator that our young ones considers 160 characters more than enough to share with the world any “intelligent” thought.

May God help us all.

I honestly don’t know if I’d actually order a Nook even with the gift card. Since my understanding was that it only applies to the orders that were initially promised to ship by Christmas, it was more an idle thought that I’d never have to back up. If it really came down to pulling out $360 in cash, I might have a change of heart, gift card or not. I certainly spend $100/quarter or so on books, but as you point out, a buck in the wallet is worth 2 in a gift card.

I do wish the Nook was a better product though. I like that its more ‘open’ than the Kindle.

Anyway…

If you and I ever sat down for a beer together we’d probably get along fine. I think it’s our writing/reading styles that tend to clash. I honestly had you figured for one of these stony dudes who never lets anything get to him, so to be frank I never even think about your feelings. Or never did. Now that I know you’re human like the rest of us, I’ll try to do better in that respect.

On top of that, it was my first day home from a trip and I’m extremely moody and short-tempered while I emotionally recuperate, so I pretty much went ballistic at being accused of arguing again. Rather than actually arguing over Twitter I stormed off, pouted, then wrote this post. My followers (gosh that sounds rather self-important) are not responsible for knowing my work schedule and knowing which days my fuse is in the negative.

Just to clarify (not being argumentative) what I was getting at, I first responded only to your “Now I wish I’d pre-ordered a Nook” which is why I asked why, since they’re being widely panned as a sub-par device but with grand potential for the next version. It was the “For the $100 off” tweet that was the misunderstanding. I don’t follow Nook news, nor did I notice your previous mention that it was indeed a gift card so I take responsibility for not catching that. When you said $100 off, I immediately perked up and Googled the thing, debating whether it would be worth getting a first-gen Nook at $159 but then saw it was full-price but with a $100 gift card, which is why I replied. As you said, to you that’s just as good. To me, it’s the same mathematically but I don’t prioritize my money that way. I carefully adjust my tax deductions so that I either come out exactly even at the end of the year or I end up owing the IRS less than $100 because I would rather have my own money all year than give them too much and have them refund it. Plenty of others enjoy getting those big refund checks. I maximize my 401(k), etc. contributions out of my paycheck rather than sending checks each month because if I never had it in my possession to begin with, I won’t miss it. Other people would rather handle that manually each month.

It’s just two sides of the same coin, I just don’t see why some people get all bent out of shape if someone else doesn’t think in identical terms.

Second, you and I have a history of friction in places other than Twitter.

But as to Twitter as a medium, I do not think it is a place for discussion; it’s too transient for that. I mean yes, you can go back and read old tweets but it is a cumbersome process at best (depending on how many people you follow; I follow 600+)

To me, Twitter is a broadcast medium. Sure, discussion happens but it tends to be very ‘light’ discussion where if someone suddenly drops out, there’s little to no consequence. Because often someone will drop out. I use it to find out what’s going on in the tech world. Gamer folks on there are just for fun and I do enjoy talking to them, but primarily Twitter is a kind of social research tool for me. Sharing links, sharing facts, sharing pics…

In this particular situation, I broadcast the news about B&N giving $100 gift cards as an apology for missing Christmas ship dates as an FYI to any of the people following me who may be impacted by the situation. But I stupidly forgot to link to the story, so I threw in a follow up tweet with the link and added as an afterthought that I wished I’d pre-ordered one. I had no intention of getting into a discussion of it; I was just broadcasting the info.

You asked why I wished I’d pre-ordered and I told you a $159 Nook might be worth having now that it’s been rooted and people are having fun hacking on it.

You then corrected me by pointing out what I had already stated: that B&N was giving $100 gift cards, not cash. As I’d already said that it was a gift card, I was (and still am) confused as to why you said this. I didn’t understand why you were challenging this off-hand comment I made; it felt to me like you were trying to set the facts straight in an attempt to make sure anyone reading the conversation knew the details.

But since someone would’ve had to pre-order the Nook back in November/early December for any of this to apply, it all seemed like a moot thing to get into a discussion over, so to me it felt like you were starting an argument just for the sake of arguing. And arguing over Twitter is *extremely* fatiguing, in my experience.

But trying to convey all this in 140 characters (while at the office, btw) is nearly impossible (which is why I don’t see Twitter as a tool for holding any but the lightest of conversations).

Again, I apologize if I hurt your feelings. You & I have a history of mis-understanding each other. This is just another example. I’m not sure the medium is to blame as much as incompatible personalities are.

Rather than giving up on Twitter altogether, why not just unfollow people (like me) who cause you stress? Having a positive Twitter experience is all about following the right people and only the right people for your particular circumstances.

And that choice isn’t really personal. There’s a blogger I read all the time, but on Twitter they’re kind of snarky and sarcastic, which bugs me, so I unfollowed them. I still read them, still like them. Just don’t enjoy their twitter presence, so I don’t follow them.

I don’t follow it like some holy grail of useful knowledge. Sure, if I ask an opinion I want a straight forward one and its a great way to keep up with people that you’ve met in the gaming community. But inflection and tone can’t be deciphered from text or at least I never have been able to figure it out. If someone posts something that you feel you have to comment on then comment, good or bad that person let you in to view their thoughts. If they didn’t want your opinion they would have blocked you the moment you started following them.

Its TV for the tech age. Just a bunch of people spinning plates on their fingers saying “look at me”.

I’ve known Scott for quite a few years, and I know his argumentative style as well as his basic chit chat style as well as his “I’m a wee bit pissed off right now”-style. I won’t claim that I’ve read all his tweets, but I’ve seen none of the above in either of his tweets. Even when I put aside everything I know about Scott, and read that as is, I can hardly find anything hostile or argumentative about them.

Some people just take their online presence a bit too seriously, I would know, being one of them from time to time. And I also know that some people are just born to stir up an argument from time to time, in the lack of better things to do.

My advise to you mate is simply ignore it, you can’t please everyone, and nor should you aim to do. Your presence both on Twitter and here on this blog is a reflection of who you are, your thoughts and views, and the fact that people actually read what you write should be proof enough that it’s time well spent. Your blog posts might not be right up my alley, as your gaming sphere is a totally different to that of mine, but I still find them very interesting and entertaining to read.

Keep at it mate!

If anyone thinks I’m being argumentative, aggressive, hostile or anything else… they’re wrong. When I am, there will be no doubt in anyone’s mind of it.