On the Twit-wagon...reluctantly
I now have a Twitter account that I plan to use for the duration of the WSOP. You can follow me at http://twitter.com/tchanpoker
I'm not proud of it. I really dislike Twitter. I intend to discontinue my Twitter account at the conclusion of the WSOP.
My reasons for hating Twitter are a bit elitist. I dislike its very nature. The idea that you have a 140-character maximum is lauded as a benefit: that people can get short and sweet to-the-point updates. This is exactly what I dislike about it; that is, the incredible ease with which Twitter enables the dumbing-down of the internet. I hate that people who I know are good writers and capable of coherent, intelligent thought instead choose to Twitter about whatever banal shit they're doing right now. In general, I don't care what you're doing right now. I don't care whether you're having a frappucino at Starbucks or what wine you're having at Nobu. I do want to read about what interesting things you might have done or plan to do, or your thoughts on politics, religion, economics, sports, art, science, personal relationships or even poker. None of these things can be represented well in 140 characters. There are very few thoughtful opinions you can express in 140 characters. Yet that does not stop legions of Twitterheads from posting absolute crap. If you look at the average Twitter user's page, it manages to look less coherent than your average YouTube video comments, and that's saying a lot.
As for me, I do not intend to post banalities on Twitter. I do not insult the intelligence of people by assuming that they care what I'm eating for dinner or who I'm eating it with. I will not be posting about prop bets. Nor will I Twitter about being at the club, and I sure as hell won't Twitter that some B-list celebrity is within a 30-foot radius of me (omg!). To be honest, if I could un-invent any recent internet technology, it would be Twitter. I consider Twittering about every trivial aspect of your life akin to masturbating to a picture of yourself.
That said, Twitter seems like a brilliant tool for posting hand and chip count updates for large tournament fields in the WSOP, where the ratio of news (using the word loosely) to the manpower required to cover said news is very high. I don't have internet access on my phone, so for me, this will be the only way I can post real-time updates from the WSOP. But I only plan to post about hands and chip counts and things actually related to the poker. No bullshit.
As always, I will continue to blog (either in text or voice) about my tournaments when I bust out of them or finish a day of play. Twitter absolutely will not replace LiveJournal, at least for me. Indeed, it is perhaps because I believe strongly in the blogging medium that I despise Twitter and its brainlessness so much.
Read long messages! God forbid!
I'm not proud of it. I really dislike Twitter. I intend to discontinue my Twitter account at the conclusion of the WSOP.
My reasons for hating Twitter are a bit elitist. I dislike its very nature. The idea that you have a 140-character maximum is lauded as a benefit: that people can get short and sweet to-the-point updates. This is exactly what I dislike about it; that is, the incredible ease with which Twitter enables the dumbing-down of the internet. I hate that people who I know are good writers and capable of coherent, intelligent thought instead choose to Twitter about whatever banal shit they're doing right now. In general, I don't care what you're doing right now. I don't care whether you're having a frappucino at Starbucks or what wine you're having at Nobu. I do want to read about what interesting things you might have done or plan to do, or your thoughts on politics, religion, economics, sports, art, science, personal relationships or even poker. None of these things can be represented well in 140 characters. There are very few thoughtful opinions you can express in 140 characters. Yet that does not stop legions of Twitterheads from posting absolute crap. If you look at the average Twitter user's page, it manages to look less coherent than your average YouTube video comments, and that's saying a lot.
As for me, I do not intend to post banalities on Twitter. I do not insult the intelligence of people by assuming that they care what I'm eating for dinner or who I'm eating it with. I will not be posting about prop bets. Nor will I Twitter about being at the club, and I sure as hell won't Twitter that some B-list celebrity is within a 30-foot radius of me (omg!). To be honest, if I could un-invent any recent internet technology, it would be Twitter. I consider Twittering about every trivial aspect of your life akin to masturbating to a picture of yourself.
That said, Twitter seems like a brilliant tool for posting hand and chip count updates for large tournament fields in the WSOP, where the ratio of news (using the word loosely) to the manpower required to cover said news is very high. I don't have internet access on my phone, so for me, this will be the only way I can post real-time updates from the WSOP. But I only plan to post about hands and chip counts and things actually related to the poker. No bullshit.
As always, I will continue to blog (either in text or voice) about my tournaments when I bust out of them or finish a day of play. Twitter absolutely will not replace LiveJournal, at least for me. Indeed, it is perhaps because I believe strongly in the blogging medium that I despise Twitter and its brainlessness so much.
Read long messages! God forbid!