It seems Australian former PM Kevin Rudd has just hit the million friends - compared to our current PM who has 120,000 friends and our opposition has less than 50,000 friends. This is exactly as I see our political landscape and have been saying has been going on over here where we have been infiltrated by right-wing hacks. What do you think, is twitter reflecting the true democratic thoughts and has it outed the BS that goes on?
NO - it's just a popularity or money contest. If you're a celebrity - you just need to post a message and it goes viral. If you have money - you just need to pay Twitter for a promoted ad and it goes viral. There's value in the relationships you can build on there, but it's not representative of democracy. If it were, Justin Bieber would be sovereign rulers of the world.
I thought that at first (he might have paid for them). But if he had paid for them they are not likely to be twitterers - looking at his followers I can't see any that's not real people, and can see a lot of people I know (from the tele), which is why I brought up the subject. I do agree it is often used to increase one's popularity but i'm not talking about the viral stuff as that's an entirely different category imho. How often do you add people you don't like as friends?
I see plenty of references in forums about Fox News being a joke... Yet viewership stats indicate it vastly outpaces competing news channels in numbers of viewers. Might think of the possible explanations for that phenomena and factor it into the equation.
A news organisation is totally different than a politician though. What pollies would you add compared to what news organisations? I have over 300 news organisations on every one of my twitter feeds (about 10) but only about 10 politicians make it to more than one of them (excepting my main pollie feed). I guess we/I trust news organisations will tweet real news that we can retweet whereas a pollie we expect will tweet partisan stuff so you would really have to like a pollie to add him imho.
Either way, your politician loses to Charlie Sheen. Maybe he needs more blow, hookers, and farm animals (not necessarily all at once). He has already mastered the art of speaking like a lunatic, so hes well on his way.
Either that, or you add people who make you laugh/you can laugh at. Further evidence: The Onion outranks both Time and Newsweek. Kevn Rudd makes me laugh, I think I'll "Follow him".
Hmmm I think people would like to be Seriously thought don't most ex-leaders get more popular after they leave gov? They tend to get interviewed for their opinions more and they tend to be less political about their views then too. Which is I guess why they get more of a following.
He hasn't left, he's a frontbencher now. He's about to become the old new PM it seems. Putting us back on the track we were taken off except this time the traitors will be shafted instead of him. It's that battle for leadership is why I think he's in front by miles.
Aggresive enforcement of your immigration laws. Conservative governance, whats not to like besides the noisy minority who think like Rudd? They're to be found in any nation so I can live with that.
No. Miley for acting or singing or whatever she does. She isn't known for being a politician so why would anyone go there? What politicians do you have in your twitter feed?
None, I don't even have twitter, I avoid it like having unprotected sex with a hooker. Even if I had twitter, there'd only be hot chicks in my feed, no politician though. I avoid them like having unprotected sex with 2 hookers.
No twitter, now that is interesting. I too don't have either a personal twitter or a facebook account, though I suspect I am going to have to buckle at some point and sign up with facebook. What is your reasoning? Don't like the idea of "following" people? Don't like the idea of publishing your activities out on a moment by moment basis for the world to see? Don't like the idea of having yet another inbox to keep track of? Don't like the idea of mindlessly publishing statements that can come back to haunt you in a job interview a decade later? Perhaps you were thinking you might run for political office one day and have the fact you "Followed" Barack Obama, or someone else who turned out to be the next Jim Jones held against you? I know a LOT of other very politically active, I.T. educated people who avoid twitter like the plague, and I keep wondering what the common thread is.
I don't have a personal facebook but have opened a personal twitter for myself just last week. Once you jump in it's worthwhile as it's easy to have the news fed to you. Once you add a few reporters it's not long before you're hearing all the news before its news. Twitter's a good thing imho whereas facebook's evil.
My reason is simple, I never found twitter required for my life.. I can live perfectly without it, then using it gonna be a waste of my time. I'm kinda old school, If I want to know what are my friends up to, I'll ring them up. I don't see twitter as good or facebook as evil.. both are just tools, its you who decides how to use them. That being said, although I have a facebook account, I rarely use it.. The only reason I have a facebook account is Texas Hold'em Poker.