i checked out the twitter website today.
i'm not an early adopter to social network sites. i still don't have a facebook account. that's not because i am in some way opposed to using new media for communication. it's because i have no-one to communicate with. none of my close friends are on facebook, for example. they barely answer emails, for god's sake! some have mobiles that are 6 years old, so forget sending picture messages to that lot. there is no need for me to sign up to facebook, as i really don't want to *make new friends* online. the truth is: amongst my laggard friends, i am the earliest adopter.
the situation is best illustrated by what happened in the mid-1990s. i lived in a student residence at leipzig and wanted to get a phone. a fixed line would take years to install. luckily, i saw an ad at the residence black board by a fellow student who was propping up his pub fund by selling mobile phone contracts. he showed me one brick-shaped ericsson phone with a flap and an aerial, which i could get for free with a student e-plus account. i could even send little typed messages to friends' emails which they would read in the email subject line. free of charge!
so we closed the deal and i got busy handing out my new mobile number to all my friends. i was the first one of us to have a mobile, so i was used as a test case. in the next weeks, i felt like one of those poxy bankers we would make fun of who would speak loudly into phones while queuing at the baker shop. i arranged visits to berlin sitting on the tram, my dentist called me to confirm an appointment as i was having lunch in the student canteen. my phone even rang during class once, much to my professor's delight. he revelled in my embarrassment and quipped *i have been waiting for this to happen in my class* and *don't you want to answer that? it could be important!* while i fumbled in my bag to find the mobile and the off-button.
a month later, it was all over. my friends had received their landline phone bills. the horrendously high charges for call to my mobile stood out like sore thumbs. every one of them vowed never to dial my mobile number again. *you call me!* they'd say.
that's what went through my head when i browsed the twitter website. is there a point in joining if i'm the only one of my network on it? what is the sound of one hand clapping?
i'm not an early adopter to social network sites. i still don't have a facebook account. that's not because i am in some way opposed to using new media for communication. it's because i have no-one to communicate with. none of my close friends are on facebook, for example. they barely answer emails, for god's sake! some have mobiles that are 6 years old, so forget sending picture messages to that lot. there is no need for me to sign up to facebook, as i really don't want to *make new friends* online. the truth is: amongst my laggard friends, i am the earliest adopter.
the situation is best illustrated by what happened in the mid-1990s. i lived in a student residence at leipzig and wanted to get a phone. a fixed line would take years to install. luckily, i saw an ad at the residence black board by a fellow student who was propping up his pub fund by selling mobile phone contracts. he showed me one brick-shaped ericsson phone with a flap and an aerial, which i could get for free with a student e-plus account. i could even send little typed messages to friends' emails which they would read in the email subject line. free of charge!
so we closed the deal and i got busy handing out my new mobile number to all my friends. i was the first one of us to have a mobile, so i was used as a test case. in the next weeks, i felt like one of those poxy bankers we would make fun of who would speak loudly into phones while queuing at the baker shop. i arranged visits to berlin sitting on the tram, my dentist called me to confirm an appointment as i was having lunch in the student canteen. my phone even rang during class once, much to my professor's delight. he revelled in my embarrassment and quipped *i have been waiting for this to happen in my class* and *don't you want to answer that? it could be important!* while i fumbled in my bag to find the mobile and the off-button.
a month later, it was all over. my friends had received their landline phone bills. the horrendously high charges for call to my mobile stood out like sore thumbs. every one of them vowed never to dial my mobile number again. *you call me!* they'd say.
that's what went through my head when i browsed the twitter website. is there a point in joining if i'm the only one of my network on it? what is the sound of one hand clapping?
posted by SCHNUCKELCHEN at 10:16 am
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