arg – Terence Eden’s Blog

Towards a Taxonomy of Twitter Tropes

@edent — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 12:34:19 +0000

If you hang around on a social network long enough, you'll find the same tropes being repeated again and again. So, I thought I'd document some of the ones that I personally find annoying. This blog post is an extension of my moderately popular Twitter thread - with a bit more detail about why they are irritating.

The Thief of Words

Twitter is an Alternate Reality Game where players get points based on how many likes, retweets, and comments they get. Thankfully, there's no monetary reward (yet) for "doing numbers". Remember when you were a teenager and you heard a stand-up comedian telling jokes, and then you passed off their words as your own in the playground? Yeah, that's all that's happening here.

The Quote Grabber

Similar to the above. Twitter gives users the ability to "quote tweet" - which embeds the original text in your comment. The above person wants to give credit to the author - which is nice - but doesn't actually want the author to see or receive any of that interaction. Sometimes that's sensible - if you don't want to encourage abuse. But all it does is add a little friction to people who do want to engage.

The Obscurer

There are loads of "big" accounts which gained their following by ripping off others. It's usually easy to find the originator of a funny photo, video, or meme. All this person is doing is (obliquely) claiming the prize for someone else's hard work.

The Troll

Back in the day, the saying was "don't feed the trolls". Sadly, Twitter rewards any engagement - be it positive or negative. So people write deliberately incendiary messages in the hope that you'll spread their poison. And people fall for it every time.

The Ghost Writer

It is public knowledge that some accounts hire funny people to post on their behalf. Perhaps that's acceptable when it is obviously a marketing account. But there's an unwritten expectation that people post for themselves on their personal account. That dude you think is funny is just using a bunch of writers who are tasked with increasing engagement. There's no authenticity. It's just turning Twitter in to pay-to-win ARG.

The Branter

Ugh! Quirky brands can piss right off. Perhaps it was funny, once, when a couple of brands spontaneously started shit-talking each other. But now it is about as innovative and entertaining as any "word from our sponsors".

The Lack of Due Diligence

This is becoming more unbearable during the war in Ukraine. A seemingly sensible and sober journalist will find an outrageous Tweet claiming to be a "deep source" and treat it as though it were gospel. All notion of critically investigating sources goes out of the window in the race to be "first" with breaking news.

The "Journalist"

News aggregator accounts are nothing new. But there's a pernicious type of Tweeter who screams "THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA AREN'T COVERING THIS!" while linking to a two-day old story. These sort of accounts add no real value to your experience - but they give you a fake sense of urgency and they tickle that part of your brain which craves new and/or secret information. Just follow a news outlet directly.

The Bias Confirmation Engine

This is one of the few Tweets where I had a specific person in mind! There's a type of account which posts fan fiction about current events. Utterly made-up stories about people from "the other side" of a debate. All it does is make you feel smug and secure that the people with a different viewpoint are bad. No proof is ever offered, just a long stream of unverifiable annecdata.

The "helper"

Lots of people disagree with me on this one! Personally, I see it as a form of pollution, at worst, and virtue hunting at best. Every time you share something false, outdated, or irrelevant you are decreasing the signal-to-noise ratio of useful information.

The Holier-Than-Thou User

It me! Using a social network effectively is a skill. Understanding complex media is a skill. These skills take time to learn, and there are very few teachers. Media literacy is a critical part of interacting with the world and there are very few resources to help people.

That was the end of the original thread - but I couldn't resist adding a few more.

The Desperate For Attention

As I've said, Twitter is an ARG where the score is based on interactions. Posting "Cats are better than dogs. RT if you agree!!!" or "Who thinks sports stars should set a good example to kids?" is a cheap and lazy way to gain interaction. Shortly after your 30th birthday, you'll find yourself in a pub saying "who remembers ?" as a quick way to get a conversation started. Happens to us all!

The Mansplainer

I've moaned about this guy before! Men - and it is usually men - seem to think any question is directed to them. They are physically incapable of seeing a question-mark without taking it personally. It is downright disrespectful to assume the person asking the question hasn't done a cursory Google. And it's even more infuriating when you blunder in with your unfounded speculation. If you don't know the answer - don't engage.

And on and on…

In truth, I could have added a dozen more of these. And, also in the spirit of truth, I'm sure I'm guilty of most of them.

I'll reiterate - social media is a game and that means there will be people who will use all sorts of tricks to get the highest score. Part of your role in this game is to ensure that you don't reward the grifters, scammers, cheaters, and grinders.

Spend your attention wisely and - as ever - play nicely.

Augmented Reality Games - How Far Have We Come In 7 Years?

@edent — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 09:30:35 +0000

There's a delightful video doing the rounds of an Augmented Reality game for the iPhone. What better use of technology than to simulate the destruction of TIE Fighters?

While undoubtedly cool, what amuses me about this game is why it has taken the gaming world so long to catch up with Symbian! Way back in 2003, I got my hands on the Siemens SX1. It was the first non-Nokia handset to be running Symbian. As well as "modern" features like GPS, web browsing, and apps - it also came with a very interesting game.

Mozzies

Mozzies was an award winning Augmented Reality game. Perhaps the first of its kind to make it in to a mass market phone. I can't find any videos of it - so here are some screenshots. From a presentation by Andreas Jakl.

As you can see, not markedly different to the iPhone / Star Wars game. Sure, the graphics have come a long way - but it's still just tracking movement through the camera and accelerometer, and then painting shootable "baddies" on the screen.

Seven Year Itch

What annoys me about Symbian is that it has all these amazing and innovative features and then squanders them. I've never seen another Symbian handset with Mozzies on it. You'd think that an award winning game like that would be on every Symbian handset.

Another example. The N95 was technically superior to the original iPhone. Yet Nokia dragged its feet on using the camera accelerometer to power the screen rotation. Barely any updates came out for the the N95 series - any hope of using that as a platform to beat the onslaught on smartphones was wasted.

I don't know whether it's Symbian or Nokia or someone else who is to blame. What I do know is that Symbian has lost any technical lead it may have had. And that's desperately sad.

The Dark Side

In researching this blog post, I came across a delightfully disturbing tale of a young man who had his phone smashed for playing this game.

Heriyono said: 'I was so engrossed with the mosquitoes, I became oblivious to my surroundings.
'Then, I saw through the phone, a figure behind the swarm of mosquitoes heading in my direction but I thought he was just passing by.'
Heriyono claims the man then shouted: 'Trying to take a photo of my girlfriend, is it?'
And he smashed the phone on the floor.

I do wonder how many more phones will be destroyed when people think they are being used to take photos. Or how many photographers will use game playing as a cover?

Perhaps it's time to make a video app which merely looks like you're playing a game...?

London - As Though I Had Never Seen It Before

@edent — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 13:32:39 +0000

In the last week, I've played two ARGs around London. Using Alternate / Augmented Reality is an amazing way to discover - or rediscover - a city.

The Real Game

This is still in "beta" so I can't say too much about it. It's a spy game with a twist. You and your partner race around London solving clues. All the while you are being chased by a "Dagger" team whose aim is to solve the same clues, find you and photograph you.

Running around London solving riddles is fun in of itself - but what heightened the experience was the constant "chatter" between your team and "Control".

The paranoia of thinking you're about to be rumbled is enhanced by hearing about the movements of your "enemies", how other teams are progressing, and helpful clues around the way.

The game took in several familiar locations - Waterloo, Tate Modern and the British Museum - which really made me investigate aspects of the spaces that I simply hadn't seen before.

Subtle Mob

Billed as the polar opposite of a FlashMob - a SubtleMob is a performance piece for two people in a crowd.

A group of people listen to the same MP3 - started at exactly the same time - and follow the performance round the streets of London. You're never quite sure who is playing, nor if they're listening to the same track as you. As the performance progresses, you're asked to perform subtle actions. The people wandering around the street shouldn't notice that you're doing anything out of the ordinary.

Here's a video showing one from last year.

It was one of the most intense experiences I've ever had in London. I've seen performances in lots of London theatres - some big, some in the back room of pubs - but "As If It Were The Last Time" was the most personal, moving and bewitching "show" I've witnessed. Truly magical.