More thoughts on Twitter, and the nature of 'real-time'

So, I've been trying to pin down exactly why I am losing love for 'real time', Twitter, etc. and I may have a few more thoughts...

Too much tweets!
Everytime I open up a Twitter app and see all those tweets stacking up, 15-30 per hour, and I follow about 60 people. When I see those tweets, its like an amplified version of the anxiety I feel after not checking Google Reader for a while. Its like I feel responsible for reading all those missed posts. I know I don't really have to, but its that sense of 'I mighta missed somethin' that isn't healthy. Why would I bring that upon myself?!

Context is King
I hate @replies. Why? Because there's no context to them. On most other social networks, (particularly one that rhymes with space-rook) you comment on stories, posts, pictures, etc. But if you wait for an hour, a day, even a WEEK (which might as well be an eternity in'real-time'), there is still context to your comment. In the Twitter-sphere, replying to something a day later is, in my humble opinion, out of context. And I know that some Twitter apps thread replies, etc, but even so, I'm just not comfortable replying to anything more than ten-minutes old.

Useful? Yes. Social network? No.
I don't think I'll quit Twitter forever. I definitely won't be giving up my sweet username. It's just not gonna be my social network. At least not in its current state. And not in my current state. I'll get my networking done somehow.

UPDATE:
I'm easing back into Twitter.

image courtesy of flickr user carrotcreative

Dear Twitter, I quit.

Dear Twitter,

I quit. Sorta. I think you might be eating my soul-parts. I'll still have to use you for workly things, but for personal interactions, I'm going old school. Facebook. Yea, I know, that's not really old school, but I also intend to blog more. Not so much for my readers, but for myself. In some crooked way, my devotion to telling the interwebs about what I'm doing using more than 140 characters at a time is cathartic. That's all for now. I'm sure you won't miss me much. Celebrities and spam-bots seem to be keeping you pretty busy these days anyway.

Sincerely,

Andrew Minchew

PS - I'll write you back next Friday to let you know how things are going for me.

15 Pounds Later

Hey interwebs. I weigh like 190 lbs now, about 15 lbs lighter than the last time I talked to you.
Anyways, I am still alive, etc. Seeking the will of God, loving my wife, and playing with my dog Max, who you haven't met yet. Here he is.


Other than that, not much is going on. I miss you, but until a big business decides to bring you to my home at a cost that is reasonable, I am bound to interact with you in Panera's and Starbucks's, and on my lunch hour, at work. I hope to be connected to you again sometime soon.

Sincerely,

andrewminchew@gmail.com