I “get” Twitter. I like the idea, I think there’s a lot of uses for the service, and I’m pretty happy with the feature set. I’ve found some people who are using Twitter in interesting ways, and two real-life friends also Twitter. When it’s good, Twitter can be a lot of fun.
On the other hand, using Twitter feels like shouting down a well most of the time. I can count on the fingers of one hand the people who’ve actually had any interaction with me on Twitter (including the friends). It’s hard to stay enthusiastic about something when you get so little feedback.
It's a reasonable assessment, though I have had better luck getting dialogue going.
But I don't know that Twitter is supposed to replace blogging, any more than IM is supposed to replace email or text-messaging is supposed to replace phone conversations.
Some things (e.g. a song recommendation) don't necessarily merit a blog post. Others (say, anything longer than 140 characters) don't fit into Twitter, literally or figuratively.
I believe these pairs of technologies complement each other. I've said before that everyone should have a blog, and I'll also say that everyone should have Twitter. Your thoughts, ideas and observations are interesting. Share them with others.
Facing the reality of maintaining an economic blog requires the evaluation of even the most casual societal even, such as the popularity and ubiquity of social networking from an economic perspective.
ReplyDeleteNow more than ever, the "perfect information" assumption of a purely competitive market in basic Economics is fast becoming a reality. Information about economic goods, other goods that relate to them, the firms which design, manufacture, transport and sell them can be connected almost instantly with consumers at a price that is almost negligible. What would this free flow of information do to the possibility of profit generation. In theory, the long term prospect of profits in a purely competitive market is zero, nil, zilch. How would modern economies thrive when the profit motive is swept off under their feet so to speak. This might even give rise to a new brand of economic theorizing altogether.
And we have front tickets to witness these rapid transformations. Isn't it exciting?