Twitter isn’t for teenagers? It’s common sense.
By Asavin Wattanajantra in Editorial
Posted in teens, tech, media, Twitter on
There are so many reports and predictions to really gauge what will happen in the future when it comes to media and technology, but much of the time it isn’t really targeted at the youngsters who really matter - the ones who will actually be taking over as the bosses of the future.
This looks to changed with a report published by Morgan Stanley of a 15-year old summer work intern called Matthew Robson, who described how he and his friends consumed media, and what this could mean in the future.
Probably the most interesting and perhaps controversial part of it is where he said teenagers didn’t use Twitter. Although many signed up to the service most weren’t going to update it because of the cost, and ‘tweets’ were pointless because nobody was viewing the profile.
It’s been a fair while since I was a teenager, but this makes complete sense to me. There are many useful ways to use Twitter, but as a social network along the lines of Facebook and MySpace it isn’t very useful. Personally if you haven’t got something to say or promote then its difficult to mix with the community, and from what I’ve seen users aren’t really in the teenage age range.
I can understand teenagers using Facebook though, because you can grow a community who actually might know you (as well as share pictures and whatnot - don’t ever underestimate the importance to this for youngsters) . And ever since Facebook implemented real-time status updates its trodden on Twitter’s turf if teens so happen to want to update friends regularly.
For me as well, there’s something inherently geeky and ‘look at me’ about being on Twitter, whereas Facebook is populated by normal people who I know in real-life. This is of major importance to teens. If they are going to make or keep friends on the net they still want a real-life social aspect to it. Twitter just doesn’t have that - maybe ‘tweet-ups’ but mostly that seems to me more of a marketing ploy rather than anything else when those kind of things are arranged.
That’s not to say Twitter isn’t useful. For many reasons it is right now. However, if I was 15 again I would have no reason to use it. Nobody I wanted to tweet to and nothing I needed to promote and share. But will this change as they get older? - that’s a question that nobody has answered yet.
Rated: 100% (1 votes)
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Don’t hate the PR - they are only doing their jobs
By Asavin Wattanajantra in Editorial
Posted in tech, journalism, PR on
One thing I’ve noticed here in my time in IT PRO is the attitude of old school tech journalists (actually not just tech - this is in other areas) to PR. There is definitely a lack of respect there, and in some cases pure hatred!
I find this quite strange, especially in tech. It seems to me that in tech, maybe more so than in any other areas, PR is vital. In fact sometimes they overlap. I’ve known this ever since I’ve started writing, and I am always as nice as I can be to them, even if they are flogging me a dead press release - but maybe that’s just in my personality - I’m nice to people.
But I’ve heard some journalists treat PR’s like a plague, curse them for stupidity, yell at them down the phone - I feel bad when this happens. Simply, these guys are only doing their job. Tech companies are not known for their news sense yet they’ll feed PR people horrid press releases journalists are not going to be interested in to pitch.
I know this - but I’m usually as friendly as can be (though there have been examples where I haven’t - though this is usually when its the end of the day or I’m hungover and a someone’s trying to really do a pressure pitch on me).
I don’t get the attitude because in the end - PR is part of the journalist lifeblood. These are the guys who will help you out when you want that interview, when you need something quickly done. These are the guys who’ll help you out with the free jollies (press trips), free drinks, free devices to play with - doesn’t really pay to be nasty or annoying - word spreads around.
I was thinking - maybe it is because most PR’s I’ve talked to are usually attractive, outgoing young ladies while tech journalists are often … not. Maybe there’s a fear of them or something.
BTW this is not pitch for me to get a PR job or something. I’m very happy being a journalist in the role I’m in and can’t really imagine doing a lot of the jobs PR’s do, especially at the beginning of their careers.
Rated: 50% (2 votes)
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