it’s official..i have disabled Twitter from my Facebook group..2 very different groups..I wrestled with this for months, but now i did it–12:19 AM Feb 12th from web
In the grand scheme of life this decision is about as unimportant as the come…really, it is. But somehow it is something I have been thinking about for months. I attempted to disconnect it twice over the last couple of months, but panicked and reconnected them within hours. Panicked might be a strong word…but it was in reality, a tough decision for a social media/web addict as myself. Yes, I fear that my online habits are bordering on addiction (and so are yours) and must be brought back under control. Sad…I know.
Cynthia Ware was the first person I had talked about this with a while ago…she disconnected them. Then I talked with John Saddington…he too has them disconnected. I saw Justin Wise disconnected his this week as well. I could list you tons more who disconnected them (or never even connected them) and tons more who still do it…great people like Greg Atkinson and Tony Steward.
But here is why I did it.
- It floods people’s Facebook Home Page/News Feed. If there are 100′s of people or over a 1,000 in your network (and your friends numbers are reciprocal), then this isn’t as big of a deal. Your status update may not even be seen. But lots of new people on Facebook and if one Twitters a lot, well, then you just might flood their news feed.
- Noise. If I send out 25 tweets, the likelihood of someone responding/commenting on them on Facebook goes down. On the other hand, updating your Facebook status and letting it sit there for most of the day, or at least several hours tends to invite more commenters I have found. This is the “boy who cried wolf” or “bystander syndrome.” Or that’s how I think of it. You keep tweeting, lots of people are going to stand by and watch until they hardly recognize your tweets anymore.
- Two different communities. Twitter in my opinion is centered more around conversation, and Facebook is place to share photos, news, video, etc, etc. That doesn’t lend itself well to the Twitter symbols (i.e. RT, @, shortened words, etc.)
- Twitter allows you to ignore Facebook. Because I never had to go on Facebook to update my status I tended to ignore a lot of what was going on there (funny thing is, people probably thought I was on Facebook all day, when in reality it was like every other day for about 30 minutes). I missed out on great opportunities to be a part of that online community, and share and contribute with them, rather than just taking and wanting them to comment on my ever changing status. Saying it another way…I could not leverage the true value of the Facebook community when I was taking a Twitter shortcut.
- More ways to update now. If I really want to update Facebook without having to go on Facebook, or from my Twitter there are many ways to do that now. I can just send a message with hellotxt which I use. Or brightkite which I also use. Or why not use the #fb in your Twitter update which will post on Facebook (which I have not used yet, but heard a lot about)
I have been on Facebook for over 4 years and Twitter for about 15 months. Not once has anyone ever complained to me about the number of my status updates (at least not to me personally). I know some people defriended me and others unfollowed me, but rarely was anything ever said to me. In fact, I thought Twitter was a great way to bring the two communities together and I often got great comments on Facebook via Twitter.
But I’ve just been rethinking my online philosophy. It is a good decision for me. It may or may not be a good decision for you. I can understand both points of view.
As we spend more and more time online, and in more and more forums, using more and more tools, we are going to have to develop some sort of coherent philsophy…each and every one of us. If we don’t, we are bound to be taken over. This was my first step in rethinking how I do things online.
Discuss
- What are you doing? Connecting? Disconnecting?
- Why or why not?
- Are there differences in the Facebook and Twitter communities? What are they?
i never linked my facebook and twitter for the same exact reason you listed. i also struggled with this when i see others integrating their twitter and facebook.
i also have many students on facebook and none are on twitter. so in a way twitter is my safe place.
TOTALLY agree. I had it when I first started using Twitter, and got rid of it one day later. It made zero sense to me why my Facebook profile should have @’s and RT’s and hoards of updates. Someone who is just using Facebook would call that annoying. I really don’t understand why anyone would have Twitter update Facebook. People on Facebook don’t want to know what you are doing every hour or they would be using Twitter right?
I wasn’t as quick as you guys to make this decision obviously…I was sort of like, well, people can figure out the symbols, etc. But 3/4 of my people on FB might be former college students of mine, and very few (handful) are using Twitter.
Ultimately, I felt like I just wasn’t engaged in the Facebook community like I should. I wanted to engage them through Twitter, and have them engage me, but I wasn’t really putting in the effort.
Two different communities…I agree with you guys now.
rhett
Reading this post got me thinking about it. The biggest things I’ve been seeing are a) I interact with Facebook less when I don’t go there to update and b) a large percentage of my interaction on FB is explaining abbrev and symbols from a retweet or a shortened url.
So, I’m going to disconnect and treat them like the 2 different communities that they are. I expect that I will have richer interactions in each one separately.
Thanks for the thoughtful and thought provoking post.
Peace.
Status is status… right?
Why should I have to update my status on the 10 different social networks I use, when they all should say the same thing anyway.
I think the root of the problem is people are using twitter for things other than what it was intended for. The question on the twitter homepage is still “What are you doing?” (ie, what is your status?)
However, people are now using twitter as an IM client, which is totally offbase.
I still leave my facebook/twitter connected because the majority of things that I tweet are things I would end up putting on facebook anyway, so it saves me one step.
I use a app that filters out any tweets with a @ symbol or a # tag. So I post mainly on twitter, and if I don’t want it to show up on facebook, I use a hash tag.
ie. “posting a comment on a #blog”
works well.
But I understand why you may want to disconnect the two. They are serving two very different purposes. If you are only updating fb once a day, it doesn’t become a huge inconvenience to just do it there.
Bradley,
Hey, great thoughts there. I see what you are saying. I agree, Twitter is being used for lots of different purposes than what it might have been intended for (i.e. extended conversations and IM client as you suggested).
That’s why I think people just have to do what is best for them in this area. It was best for me to disconnect I believe. I do like saving the step, but I think there are other tools I can use when I want to update all my sites at once anyways.
Appreciate the thoughts.
Vin….interesting. what app are you using that filters the stuff out?
Bubba,
I’m expecting richer connection in the areas when treated separately, and so far that has proven true in just a few days.
rhett
Good thoughts man! I thought about this a lot about a month ago when I decided to disconnect the two.
1. My facebook friends thought I was crazy for spending all day at facebook! (not doing I was updating twitter from phone, laptop, etc.)
2. They all felt out of the loop. Then couldn’t send at @reply back, they didn’t understand the jargon, etc..
3. It was just to much. I interact with twitter way to much, and it just over load for the Facebook crowd. Facebook is much, MUCH slower then twitter, and should be treated as such.
4. Now I go on about once a day, make a facebook update, interact with some people and leave.
Twitter has really kidnapped me away from facebook!
twitter.com/Rick_Smith
rickwsmith.com/blog
Good call. Thanks for leading the charge on this one.
I’m with you – no one ever said to me, “this is too much,” but I felt, like you, that the worlds were different enough to warrant the disconnect.
For me, part of it was just being lazy! I could neglect Facebook because I knew Twitter was “taking care of things.” Now I have to be more intentional around Facebook and intentionality, I’m finding, is never a bad thing!
Peace.
Wow, Tyler pretty much said it.
And for additional reasons I’ve locked my tweets. But that’s a whole nother post…..
PS – Vin Thomas, what is the app that filters out @tweets. I’ve got so much to learn.
Rick,
Whoa! Good thoughts. I’m with you. Updating my FB status 1-2 times a day is hardly a chore, especially when I can do it via mobile. Also, I feel like I have better interactions on there right now…paying more attention to what is going on. And I consider my FB community valuable and want to treat them as such.
Justin…yes, intentionality is never a bad thing.
Cynthia,
wow, protected Tweets, say more.
rhett
I despise facebook. I feed my tweets to my facebook status only because I pity those trapped within the walled garden.
For me it’s about the flow of information. With Twitter’s API I can post status updates to my personal website, aggregate tweets via hashtags and maintain everything efficiently through 3rd party apps. Facebook pretty much allows none of that. It’s like the new AOL in that it limits the breadth of what is available with the internet yet is nevertheless extremely popular.
Scott,
Wow, despise Facebook and it’s a “walled garden.” I don’t despise it, but I do agree that it doesn’t allow flow of information, and I know some developers who have had nightmares working with FB on 3rd party platforms. Do you think it will go the way of AOL?
rhett
The “walled garden” idea has been around a while. I first heard about it from Jeff Atwood. In particular:
“I feel very strongly that we already have the world’s best public social networking tool right in front of us: it’s called the internet. “
Whether fb will go the way of AOL brings to mind similar arguments people used to apply to Myspace.
Scott,
Now MySpace, that I despise
Yeah, i’m a big fan of open source and sharing information, flow of information, etc, etc.
I don’t spend much time on FB. I almost see it as a Rolodex, which is a pretty antiquated tool in and of itself. It’s a place where I know I can contact anybody I want to. But I don’t spend tons of time there.
But I like it…sharing photos with some family, etc.
totally contradicting myself…like, not like…
out.
rhett
I still don’t get the twitterers who think we really WANT to read how many sugars they just put in their coffee. Twitter is a great tool for communicating, but it’s also the noise that distracts us from what is important. Twitter is useful to me BECAUSE it connects to Facebook and allows me to communicate with two very different audiences at the same time without redundancy. If you are tweeting every five minutes maybe you need to take a look at how productive you really are. Twitter can easily fly in the face of getting things done. Just like email, there are times when it is appropriate to turn it off entirely and only use it when you plan to “really deal with email”. For those of you who somehow your job IS social networking, perhaps that works for you. However, most of us work in places where we are expected to do what we are being paid for, not for updating our status.
Scott,
I think it can fit within a workflow system, but it does sort of depend on the type of job you have. When I’m in the clinic all day I can send some updates and communicate via Twitter, but on a limited basis. On other days when I’m in front of the computer a lot I can use it a lot more.
I know some churches and organizations that have been moving away from email, etc. which is a huge time sucker and been communicating via that tool.
When I finish reading Getting Things Done by David Allan, I will tell you if it is a good idea or not
haaa. just kidding. He’s on Twitter anyways, @gtdguy
thanks for posting.
rhett
Thanks Rhett for the post.
If anyone needs feedback on Twitter overwhelming FB, I can give it. I have dropped FB friends because their tweets overwhelmed my friend feed. And I don’t send them a message to explain why I dropped them… Perhaps if EVERYONE used Vin Thomas’ filter it would be bearable.
I keep my Twitter and FB separate because I use them differently. I know people I am FB friends with, so my statuses are personal. My Twitter is intended to be more of a public micro-blog.
I like your main point, Rhett. Humbly asked – if you aren’t willing to be an active “blessing” to others in the community of Facebook, why do you ask others to be a blessing to you by reading and commenting on your statuses?
after giving it some thought, i did the same. [disconnected] my experience lately as I’ve upped my tweets has been people in FB not having any idea what it all means. i’ve gotten A LOT of questions about it. But those questions are people wanting to try it out or join twitter, just curious. For me, FB is more of a catch all with friends and acquaintances from back when, it’s not the current model for the people I know now, so the goals of the two networks and my usage of them is different enough that I’m at least going to try this and see if I like it better. No fault in that.
I have a lot of friends on facebook who were confused about my amount of status updates. For me it was more for convenience. I have friends on FB that I’ve known since high school. And my wife and her friends are on there. A few times people have mentioned to her about my status updates. I’m not looking to create drama. Although, I do enjoy stirring the pot!
Adrienne,
Thanks for sharing…so you have experienced the onslaught of tweets in the news feed. yeah, i probably annoyed some people. And yeah, I felt like I was wanting people to comment all the time, but I wasn’t equally participating in the conversation, especially on Facebook. Thanks for sharing.
Jason,
Yeah, I think a lot of people are finding that they serve two different groups of people and can be used in different ways. And definitely not fault in trying it.
Jim,
Yes, convenience is huge. That’s one of the reasons I did it. And like I was saying about. I don’t have a dogmatic position on this…this is just what I felt was best, but I can see both sides.
Rhett
Dave (@divpix),
I have had a couple of conversations with you about doing it…and after talking to you several times that also what helped convince me to do it. Just seemed like it was overwhelming people. They weren’t saying that to me, but I could tell. Know what I mean?
rhett
great post- wondering the same things in terms of updating facebook with twitter. is it annoying? is it the same audience?
my feeling is if there are posts on twitter that don’t make sense for facebook, then don’t do it. but i don’t update twitter enough to divide them, and i try to make my twitter updates something that adds value, so hopefully my facebook friends are getting value.
Brad,
I think you are thinking along the same lines as many people. I know that having them connected saves a lot of us time from updating too many sites, but I think the audiences are very different. I hope to see you at Catalyst…if I can make West Coast that would be great. If not, hope to make Atlanta.
Rhett
There’s an app for facebook called ‘selective twitter update’ which to my mind gives you the best of both worlds. When you specifically want to update your facebook status from twitter, finish the message with a #fb hashtag. Otherwise your facebook status gets nicely left alone. That way you can just post stuff that may be of interest to facebook peoople to facebook and they don’t drown in chatter…
I just did it this morning and I feel fantastic. I’ve thought a lot about it and decided to make a clean cut of the two worlds to avoid the George Costanza indecent “This is not good. World’s are colliding! George is getting upset!”.
letting go. thanks for your post. i love both twitter and fb. but there is so much overlap now that there is a lot of redundancy. plus lots more noise in facebook from twitter. i will still use both, but am cutting the link.
How do you disconnect Twitter from Facebook?
IT WON’T WORK.
I found your explanation valid. But, How do I disconnect my twitter updates going to FB?
why disconnected
why disconnected chat to the yahoo
I totally agree. I just wish I could figure out how to disconnect it!
There are certainly a lot of details like that to take into consideration. That is a great point to bring up. I offer the thoughts above as general inspiration but clearly there are questions like the one you bring up where the most important thing will be working in honest good faith. I don?t know if best practices have emerged around things like that, but I am sure that your job is clearly identified as a fair game. Both boys and girls feel the impact of just a moment’s pleasure, for the rest of their lives.