Is Twitter Big Brother

Posted on January 29, 2007 
Filed Under Twitter

Since we are jumping on Twitter, I am wondering if it is Big Brother? Just from your perspective. Seeing that it is voluntary, can it be looked at as a Big Brother style application? Should it be? I am of the mind that it can do more good than evil, but am curious what my Twitter friends think. BTW, follow ETS Talk on Twitter.

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9 Responses to “Is Twitter Big Brother”

  1. Allan on January 29th, 2007 8:42 am

    This is another piece to the general conversation about privacy and openness. Phone tracking or even shoe tracking have a ring of big brother to them, but since I choose what to post and what not to post, then I don’t see a problem with it for me. It’s not that different from all of the IM’s and status messages that fly across various chat networks. Who knows how those are being archived and will be mined. But the value of the service outweighs my concerns over being watched.

  2. drs18 on January 29th, 2007 8:52 am

    Yes it is.

    Where would it start? A powerful force overcoming intense public opposition to impose the loss of private space? Come on- it would start exactly like this, everyone saying, “isn’t this cool?”

    Do you really think intelligent people would be able to see it coming and fight it? Don’t think so.

    Can it be useful? Possibly. So is a dictatorship.

  3. Tim on January 29th, 2007 9:56 am

    Fabulous question, I was actually thinking about this over the weekend. Twitter isn’t Big Brother, but is has a potential to be. The fact I can CHOOSE whether or not to post on Twitter makes it less of an issue for me. I can almost guarantee that if I was told to post updates on Twitter, I would probably stop.

    Other things I’ve thought about:

    -I actually think Twittier brings out more voyeuristic side of people. Do we really need (or care) to see what other people are doing?

    -How do we even know that what people are posting is the actual truth? Which leads us back to the Big Brother question. How is posted content “verified” to be the truth?

  4. More Twitter Stuff at Cole Camplese: Learning & Innovation on January 30th, 2007 7:42 am

    [...] Seeing that I decided to see if I could create an opportunity for engagement … I quickly created a very short post over at the ETS Blog space asking if Twitter is Big Brother. From there I simply sent out a quick Twitter asking for my friends to respond to a post over at the ETS site. [...]

  5. Tim on January 30th, 2007 9:09 am

    I’ve thought about this all night and I’ve changed my response… Sorta… I’ve realized that Twitter isn’t the enemy nor is it Big Brother. Do I (we) really care if people see what I am doing? No, not really… It comes down to those who criticize what I (we) do.

    Hypothetically speaking, if we were to update my Twitter to say “Going out with whomever” and then showed up late to work (or called in sick), the implications would vary on those who saw the Twitter posting(s). Now, you could say “Just use your head and don’t post that information to Twitter,” but wouldn’t that defeat the entire purpose of Twitter? There are a few other scenarios that I could post, but I am hoping you all see my point.

    The fact is Twitter isn’t the enemy.

  6. Brad on January 30th, 2007 9:13 am

    I am thinking of this question not in the larger sense of human society, but in the more narrow sense of the workplace.

    Even though is it voluntary, there could still be social pressure that can make people compelled to update. If some people are sending steady updates of what they are doing during the work day, knowing their supervisor is paying attention, then others may feel they will appear to be slacking if they don’t send their own frequent updates.

    I was surprised to see all the work going on this past Saturday. As people see this, will they feel like they have to get work done on Saturdays too?

    While twitter is based around the question, “What are you doing?”, I wonder if there might be better questions around which to base ETS’s use of twitter. There could also be other questions that could be the basis of learning activities. What are these questions? Let’s figure it out.

  7. Chris Baskind on January 31st, 2007 6:30 pm

    Why are you asking such questions?

    I’m putting you on the Watch List. Hmm …

  8. Nano on January 31st, 2007 7:28 pm

    Interesting question about choosing. You don’t necessarily need to be explicitly told to do something in order to actually obey a rule or follow a trend, behavioral pattern, et cétera. That’s pretty much how consensus and consent works. And particularly in the case of Twitter, seems like you “need” to use it because the coolness factor or whatever. Clearly the people who design such systems kind of know beforehand the way you would possibly react.

  9. Allan on January 31st, 2007 10:13 pm

    I think this is going to be a big topic at the next ETS Talk Podcast. It should be posted on Friday unless life intervenes.

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