On the amazing phenomenon that is Twitter
by Jeff Nusser on Apr 9, 2010 11:29 AM PDT
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PrintMany will think this is a story about Reggie Moore. It's not. It's a story about Twitter and an example of just what kind of influence it can have and how it's literally changing the nature of news.
I woke up early this morning and fired up the computer at about 6:30 a.m. to find this staring me in the face:
Of course, being the good Cougar that I am, the first that that went through my mind was OH MY GOSH OH NO NO NO NONONONONONNOOOOOONOOOOOOOONONONOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I then proceeded to get in the shower, thinking about how I'm going to quit being a fan forever if Reggie Moore transfers.
So, I posted a reply to Moore's tweet, figuring it wasn't really about transferring, but to tell him not to do this to all of us. Within an hour, alert reader Cougar_Patrick (@nwsportsnightly on Twitter) direct messaged me to let me know that Moore had sent out this tweet last night, which I hadn't seen:
So, now I'm wondering -- did he get some bad news with his knee? Is he having to decide whether to reconstruct or rehab? WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON WITH OUR STAR POINT GUARD????? Plus, the "T" word is still floating around in the back of my mind.
Apparently, I wasn't the only one. Within an hour:
And then, in response to Cougar_Patrick/@nwsportsnightly asking if he was talking about the knee:
Now, we still have no idea what he was referring to with that first message. And some people might think that Moore should have his Twitter privileges revoked for stopping our hearts about once a week with an ill-conceived tweet. But think about this: One of our basketball players put something out there about himself, we responded directly to him, and it was all cleared up in about an hour -- AN HOUR -- straight from Reggie Moore himself.
Not even Vince Grippi, who I know is trying to get more information on all of this, can operate that fast.
I don't know if Twitter is going to change the world or anything, but I do know this
- It's completely changed the way we receive our information (it now comes to us instead of us going to it); and
- It's completely changed the way we interact with people (celebrities, athletes, etc.) who once upon a time were completely beyond the reach of the masses.
If you haven't taken the plunge into Twitter yet -- either through fear of the unknown or because you think it's useless -- no worries. We're going to have a Twitter tutorial next week that hopefully will show you the full range of its capabilities and why it just might be a worthwhile endeavor for you to dip your toe.
You can follow us via Twitter @CougCenter and follow Jeff Nusser @NussCoug.
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Good work, Nuss.
And for those who think twitter is stupid and refuse to get one, I know how you feel. I even blogged about how much I hate twitter and the ridiculousness of it. Then I slowly came around and finally got one. And while I don’t post that much, I still have access to a ton of break news, funny tweets from people like Rainn Wilson and Nathan Fillon, and tweets from Mariners (RRS), Seahawks (Hasselbeck, Pete Carroll), and my other favorite athletes (Mark Sanchez).
So if you are absolutely against getting a twitter, I’d recommend setting one up but just doing the bare minimum. Don’t personalize anything, just start following Nuss, Grady, Craig, CougCenter, LookoutLanding, etc etc and you’ll start to get a ton of information from a myriad of sources, and as Jeff mentioned, actual access to players.
To help prove Jeff’s point about access, my buddy lives in Fort Worth and is going to the game against the Rangers tonight. He follows Ryan Rolwand-Smith and asked if he could get hooked up with an autograph. Apparently he’s all set, just needs to get there a little early. How in the world would that be possible without something as seemingly insignificant as twitter?
Take the plunge.
You just scared the living *#$% out of me!
Ha ha, I have no idea how I would be able to get over Moore transfering. That would be like a dagger to the heart.
Allergic to Reggie's awesomeness
by Brian Floyd on Apr 9, 2010 3:18 PM PDT via mobile up reply actions
BECAUSE I SAID SO
Now that I’ve been a dad for a few years, I’ve had lots of practice with do as I say and not as I do.
My fear
Once people above the age of 50 find out about Twitter, it will start to become tightly regulated. I could imagine student athletes signing a Twitter “code of conduct” or something so they can’t talk about things that might reflect negatively on the University. Same goes for facebook. Access is going to be scaled back, and all that tasty free speech won’t be so free anymore.
In the meantime, I LOVE twitter. Have it on my phone, have it on my computer, and damn you Nuss for turning me on to Tweetdeck so that I may be further sucked into its vortex. It’s like a news feed where you get to choose exactly who you receive news from. It’s the first time in history I can get updates from Taylor Rochestie and the Dalai Lama in one place. It’s magnificent. I really hope it doesn’t jump the shark like facebook has for me. I don’t think it will – the unbelievable thing about twitter is somehow we all got pulled into the same platform. Simply incredible.
I’m still trying to sell my wife on it. Not sure what to do if/when my parents or coworkers join, though. They might find out just how much of a dork I really am.
I think its beauty is in its simplicity
That’s where Facebook sort of went awry. It seems to be trying to recapture that.
raising hand as yet to dip my toe in the twitter waters
but that’s because I like being an old curmudgeon about things like twitter and facebook….think “Grumpy Old Man” from SNL in the ’90’s :)
double edged sword
Twitter can cut both ways….starting rumors and resolving them (see Reggie). In the hands of someone who lacks discernment, it’s trouble. I’m 48 and probably pretty old in comparison to most who frequent this blog. I don’t do Twitter, though my daughters both have a “tweet deck” and I seldom text. I do, however, have a Facebook account so I’m not totally in the dark ages. As a former English major, I struggle a bit w/ what these mediums have done to the English language…no caps, little punctuation, and abbreviated spellings. Some of it is code to me, like “FTW.” After a while I can’t help but smh (my daughter tells me that stands for shake my head:).
As a current English teacher
It’s all about teaching our kids about context. We use all kinds of different language in all sorts of different contexts. I use poor punctuation in spelling and grammar in my text messages because it’s a medium where speed trumps accuracy. But I work hard to have near-perfect language use here.
I’m a big believer that we can’t ignore what kids are using outside of school. We just need to teach them how to be appropriate communicators in a variety of situations.
by Jeff Nusser on Apr 9, 2010 5:17 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
As a recent English major graduate,
it annoys me whenever I see it. I actually write out my texts with correct punctuation and spelling, which seems to confuse people.
by displacedcoug on Apr 9, 2010 10:57 PM PDT up reply actions
Ah, nuts.
pretty ironic how poorly worded that subject line is…
by displacedcoug on Apr 10, 2010 2:09 AM PDT up reply actions
There's a problem I have with twitter, though
I know most want information fast now, especially with online news and a 24 hour news cycle. The issue with twitter has been that news almost comes too fast. What I mean is that you get stories that pop up and are circulated before there is any proven validity to them. Twitter allows people, and even some journalists, to fire off quick tweets and worry about the repercussions later. This can lead to news breaking that isn’t true or isn’t completely true and before you know it, the tweets are being sent all over the place. Small examples are the Cliff Lee trade (someone failed a physical, game over) and the ever popular Oregon coaching search.
On the plus side, it’s an unfiltered way to get news out. It’s been used as a way to get messages out in an uncensored way, for good or for bad. It also allows interaction with people you’ve never met before (celebrities, CougCenter writers).
Oh, and follow me on twitter @floydcoug because I’m awesome and entertaining.
I think it's still working itself out as a breaking news medium
But there were some who thought it had run its course in that respect. I don’t think that’s the case at all — I think it’s getting refined.
by Jeff Nusser on Apr 10, 2010 11:37 AM PDT up reply actions
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