<p>Very little content you might use.</p>
<p>[40</a> percent of Twitter messages ‘pointless babble’: study](<a href=“http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.80c182849ca932a32a5eda49e4fe1b02.3b1&show_article=1]40”>http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.80c182849ca932a32a5eda49e4fe1b02.3b1&show_article=1)</p>
<p>So?? Probably 40% (at least) of internet forums is pointless babble. The job of the individual is to take what you need and leave the rest.</p>
<p>Today I learned from Twitter: the results of some of the races I care about in the World Track Championships, that the SEC is planning to prohibit social networking at athletic functions, that political columnist Robert Novak died, that there was an overflow of ntric acid creating an emergency at the Oak Ridge Lab, that Southwest is having a big fare sale and that I can buy some Zensah compression sleeves at a discount.</p>
<p>What more could I want? I filtered out the young women encouraging me to “look at their pics”</p>
<p>Depends who you follow. If you are only following celebrities or people using Twitter for social/friends type use - yeah, that’s what you’ll probably get. But if you use it to communicate/share info about educational resources, keep informed on news, etc. it’s more useful. </p>
<p>I don’t know why people are so anxious (it seems) to put Twitter down as useless (not directed at OP). Use it if you like it or if it’s useful to you - if not, don’t!</p>
<p>File this under “Duh!”</p>
<p>I learn more than I need every day just by opening my browser - the home page is set to Yahoo which dispalys the markets, current celebrities gossip and various news headlines on one convenient page. I take a closer look at significantly less than 5% of what I see there. I have no desire to be a follower or a twitterer (?), but some folks apparently enjoy twittering. And some might even want to look at the “pics” MOfWC mentioned :). To each his/her own, I guess.</p>
<p>Today Twitter told me: Greg Paulus will be the starting QB at Syracuse, most of the fall sports teams have reported to D1’s college, and the starting lineup for the Phillies.</p>
<p>I only “follow” things that interest me. I never tweet – I can’t imagine anyone would be interested!</p>
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<p>Surprising that it that low! Of course, you can safely add about 95% of the conversational messages to the pointless babble tally for another 35 percent. This said, getting to 75 percent of pointless babble is probably a good twenty percent too low! </p>
<p>Of course, just as for the utterly useless world of blogs, this will not stop the happy communion of bored narcissistics and curious voyeurs in yet another intellectual wasteland. </p>
<p>And then we wonder why the employee productivity is so low in the United States and that children are turning into a nation of quasi-illiterates who can only manage a thought of 140 characters.</p>
<p>In my opinion…ALL telemarkeing is useless babble. Despite the fact that I’m on the do not call list, I still get calls DAILY. I have no choice about this.</p>
<p>It is a matter of personal choice to sign onto Twitter, Facebook or any other social networking site. If you think it’s mindless babble…just don’t bother with it. It’s YOUR choice.</p>
<p>I follow who I want to follow and also get ticket offers from the Phillies, closeout items from woot.com. Again, it’s what I want. It’s not for everyone but I enjoy it.</p>
<p>Social media is a major global revolution/ a super shift in the way we communicate. Maybe not everyone is there yet but they are installing major cable down the coast of Africa. And communication has always had its element of untruths and drivel. In library school back in the day, they called it, these social exchanges the “universal college” or people exchanging info across the back yard fence, in the coffee shops etc. Oh my, where our back yard fences take us today!</p>
<p>From a tweet:</p>
<p>80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices…people update anywhere, anytime…imagine what that means for bad customer experiences?</p>
<p>Generation Y and Z consider e-mail pass</p>
<p>“In 2009 Boston College stopped distributing e-mail addresses to incoming freshmen”</p>
<p>Oh boy, these kids are in for a rude awakening - workplaces still rely on e-mail as the means of communications. I cannot imagine my boss twittering me his requests to coordinate a series of meetings with our collaborators! Until the dinosaurs of the digital age go extinct, the twitter generation will have to live by their standards.</p>
<p>They are not necessarily using twitter. They message (or email using their personal email account). They walk around with hand held devices that are online 24/7. These devices carry everything: twitter, facebook, emails, phone, movies, tvcasts, banking etc. They are mini computers. So they will have coordinated the boss’s emails into their “package” and receive them when they are sent.</p>
<p>Some not all use twitter as their professional tool to keep up with others in their profession. Jobs, new ideas, others in the profession are linked. It’s up-to-date. </p>
<p>The biggest joke: people who use twitter to say what sandwich they are eating or what they had for breakfast.</p>
<p>It is there to use however you like.</p>
<p>You only follow who you want to follow. Echoing several others, I get a lot of good information from Twitter. Today I found out about: NY’s governor announcing he’d sign a just-delivered bill prohibiting shackling pregnant inmates during labor (seconds after it happened), a new song from a band I like, the location of my favorite ice cream truck throughout the day, a residence for homeless LGBT youth that’s going to be named after Bea Arthur, and a couple of sales. Sounds pretty good to me.</p>
<p>And really, I enjoy reading a lot of what this study would consider “useless babble.” It’s a social medium. Don’t you ever talk with your friends about what you had for lunch? My friend acing his final may not be a major news event, but I’m glad to hear about it and congratulate him even though our schedules haven’t been intersecting lately and I may not see him or talk with him for a few more days. It’s also great for getting quick responses to questions you want personal opinions and recommendations on (e.g where can I get good cupcakes in neighborhood X, does anyone know of any good articles on Y, what’s the best way to start a campaign for Z?). I follow some artists, writers, and activists I admire, and have gotten a lot of great info from them, and a few have liked what I tweet enough to follow me and comment on what I’m up to, which makes the whole thing worth it for me!</p>
<p>I can’t imagine BC no longer issuing email addresses has anything at all to do with Twitter. More likely it’s that everyone comes to college with an email address already, so why bother to assign and host something redundant? Very few people use Twitter as an email replacement. It’s a different medium with different utility, and it’s not Generation Y and younger that’s adopting it fastest, so all of the “those kids today with their Twitter” rhetoric really misses the mark. According to <a href=“http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/2009-facebook-and-twitter-growth-by-age-group/[/url]”>http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/2009-facebook-and-twitter-growth-by-age-group/</a> Twitter’s experiencing more growth in the 55+ age group than in the 24 and under set.</p>
<p>Well said, Pseudonym! The playing field is leveling across the planet when “bigwigs” follow little wigs to get ideas. Access to the right information is power. Long and short of it.</p>
<p>You have to try it out to understand its value to you personally.</p>
<p>Bunsen…I’m quite sure that the Boston College kids already HAVE email addresses…they just don’t have BC email addresses. Both of my kids had active email addresses when they entered college. Both now have gmail accounts because those go from ISP to ISP and they both got tired of leaving one place (and the email that went with it) to go to another (with a different email). Now…they just use gmail which is very portable.</p>
<p>I’m confused about the lack of college emails. Sure, they already have email accounts, but the school doesn’t know them, and learning and keeping track of them, rather than assigning a college one, seems like a lot of extra work.</p>
<p>I know this because I tear my hair out, as do all my colleagues, trying to convince students to use their college emails. The successful ones most often do. Otherwise, they miss all kinds of useful information. Many profs don’t want to learn student emails and keep track of them; they want to use the one built into the system. The support program I work for needs to communicate often with students–again, it’s tough to keep track of their (often inappropriate) private emails. Financial aid, registrar, advising, all kinds of vital, necessary, private communication needs to happen, whether or not students “want” to use the standardized email.</p>
<p>To get back to the question of Twitter, we are actually considering a Twitter account for our program, to get general announcements and reminders out. But that doesn’t guarantee they will “follow” us if we do, and it also doesn’t solve the problem of getting private, important communication to happen.</p>
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<p>Hmm… most colleges use the kids’ OWN email addresses during the application process and they have FAR MORE applicants than enrolled students. Seems like they already have these personal emails in their system. My daughter got ALL of her college admissions “stuff” via email. AND we get (with her permission) all of the college “stuff” via our home email.</p>
<p>When DD registered for her classes as a freshman (online) she did so using her home email address. </p>
<p>I guess I don’t understand why they need a college email address. They do need to be able to access the college website, but they can do that with a PIN number as many colleges do…not via their college email.</p>
<p>Okay, at least where I work, I’m sure the admissions department has their local emails. But the automated systems do not. A prof who wants to talk to your kid, is going to pop their name in the college email, and expect it to get to the right place. Over the course of four (or more) years, emails change. It’s hard enough to keep track of our students changing addresses, never mind if they are now “sexyprincess411 @hotmail” or some such other highly inappropriate handle (and last year, they were “fluffybear @ gmail,” and then…etc). Which is what the majority have. If for no other reason, a college address gives them one which is more appropriate for the adult world–job applications, grad schools, etc.</p>
<p>I still don’t understand what the purpose of Twitter is; then again, I don’t have one and don’t ever care to have one. Is it just some kind of text messaging on the Internet instead of on a phone (don’t understand that either; I have never sent anyone a text message)?</p>
<p>^^ And you dug up this old thread for those quesitons? Try googling Twitter or searching some of our other discussions on this forum and maybe you’ll understand it better.</p>