Wednesday Linkfest
Here’s this week’s linkfestage:
- Science fact about twitter (NSFW). This is the kind of diagram I wish was more commonly used by people who use diagrams.
- The Mistake bank. An attempt to create a web community around failures and discussing mistakes.
- Long live the Atari 2600. I still think some 2600 games are more fun to play than the latest games – they had to have great gameplay since the graphics were a joke. I wrote about this years ago in teeny tiny piece for Wired, and it’s still true. Warlords, Air Sea Battle and Yars Revenge baby.
- The latest biggest thing. Article about how twitter ruins relationships. Not saying it doesn’t, but this is the kind of article that has been written every 5 years about whatever the new thing is.
What about people who dismiss Twitter because they hate that it breaks flow, much like instant messaging, email clients which check the server every 5 minutes, phone calls, and PA systems?
What about people who wonder whether it’s really a good thing to monitor a real-time feed of other people’s activities when they’re supposed to be, y’know, working?
Turning off the Twitter and other things is an exercise of will power to some, but can be extraordinarily refreshing. I enjoy my long walks to and from home in the mornings and evenings partially for this reason. I am alone in my head, sometimes I don’t even listen to music.
Blaming any highly accessible tech is futile, because the problems are not related to its functionality but rather its users. Perhaps it isn’t such a bad thing that the same service which sucked these people in is also helping them realize personal weaknesses to overcome.
Richard: Sometimes I think everyone is right. The people who hate twitter and the people who love it might all be right.
Neil: I agree, blaming tech is kind of stupid, but it’s less offensive than blaming the people :)
Frankly I think twitter is probably quite silly and that I won’t like it, but before I condemn a thing I should probably give it a try, you know?