a christmassy city

As somebody requested, I post some pictures of christmas markets, here they are. Plus some impressions of my city of birth at this time of year.

 

 

The meaning and use of Twitter

Twitter can be used in different ways. I will give a short overview and write about the possibilities and limitations inherent in this platform.

The generalities

The limit of 140 characters per tweet has lead to a new art in the use of wording, grammar and abbreviations. It´s also interesting to compare the content you can put in one tweet by using different languages. I find it most pleasant to read a statement made in a single tweet and not broken up in several ones. Of course that´s not always possible but I try to keep my statements within this limit. Having said that, I have to admit that I´ve always been a fan of keeping things short and to a point.

Tags are a great way to follow broadcasts about an event and a good tool to shorten tweets. I wish I could use them in real life, too.

The publicity of the things you tweet can lead to interesting conversations when people you didn´t expected to, suddenly chime in.

The possibility to send direct messages as well as to protect your account gives you the possibility to use several degrees of publicity for your messages.

Social network

The possibility to describe yourself on your account page and the suggestions whom you might want to follow can lead to the creation of a network of people who share one or more common interests. The people belonging to this network will often be quite diverse regarding their location, culture, life-style and political views. This seems to be different from other social networks such as Facebook for example, where the people added as friends first and foremost tend to be people you know in real-life like friends, relatives, colleagues and so on.

The form of communication in this aspect of Twitter tends to be dialogical. The tweets sent are either directed at someone in special or your followers in general but more often than not you expect them to be part of a conversation through replies or at least retweets or favouritings. The content ranges from very personal messages to general information you think might be of interest for your followers. Taken together, this aspect of twitter can build the core for a more or less close group of people, most of whom you’ll probably never meet, for discussing various issues, letting people know about your thoughts as well as your lunch, and learning about the lives of others.

What has been expressed repeatedly on the net is the fact that people use to tell things on Twitter that they wouldn´t on Facebook. As the reason for this I tend to see the fact that you normally don´t personally know the people you´re talking to on Twitter and the fact that you can use pseudonyms here and any “confessions” you make can´t be directly traced back to you if you take care of that.

Another consequence is that the people you “know” on twitter don´t see you the same way as the people you know personally. When you ask for advice, people you know irl will include in their answer, consciously or not, all the things they know about you and the things they have experienced with you. They will see you through a certain set of glasses, if you will, and thus exclude answers they hold to be unsuited for you. They may also think about the consequences their advice will have for them. People on Twitter will know far less about you and only things you decided to let them know. Advice given by them will be more objective, but on the other hand also much more general and less suited for your specific situation and personality.

What you have to bear in mind when dealing with people on Twitter is that everything they tell you could be fake. Another problem might be that you will probably never meet them in real life. Both things are of no consequence as long as you only want to talk about shared interests in music or films, but it can lead to troubles if you get too attached to them. Keep yourself aware of the fact that in most cases, a conversation is the only thing you will have with these people. A good advice is to always keep yourself grounded in real life and to see your virtual life as an addition to that rather than a substitute for it.

Announcements

Another way to use Twitter is a mostly monological form of communication. A tweeter sends messages to his followers without much regard to replies. This method is used by celebrities (people with more followers than they could possibly pay attention to) and companies or organizations. It´s a good tool for the marketing of products as well as ideas. On the part of the followers though, this often leads to exaggerated hopes.

In theory, twitter gives you the possibility to directly send messages to famous people, but with a probability of 99.9% these messages will simply be ignored. Even if he/she gives you a followback, that will almost always mean he/she will follow so many people that he/she won´t be able to read all the tweets in the timeline. So if you follow an idol of yours, be prepared that this will be no more than a one-way street of communication.

Conclusion

Before getting started on Twitter you should ask yourself what you expect from your stay there and what you can and shouldn´t do to achieve that.

-         Is the number of your followers really important to you?

-         What does it say about you, when you follow or get followed by hundreds or even thousands of people?

-         Do you want to simply read/hear/watch what others post or do you want to have conversations with people?

-         Are the things you post really interesting for your followers?

-         Think twice before you reveal personal information on a public platform as this.

Talkin' 'bout my generation

 

I was asked to write something about my generation and state my opinion on the question, if I hold myself to be a typical member of it.

A search on the internet brought forth the following descriptions:

Belonging to my generation, the so-called Generation X, are the people born between the early 60´s and the early 80´s. We experienced the introduction of the personal computer, the start of the video game era, cable television and the Internet. Other events include the AIDS epidemic, the War on Drugs, the Iran hostage crisis, the Persian Gulf War, the Dot-com bubble, grunge, alternative rock and hip hop.

In his novel “Generation X”, Douglas Coupland emphasizes that the people belonging to this generation didn´t have the security their predecessors enjoyed, equally economically and ecologically.

In the preface to „Generation X Goes Global: Mapping a Youth Culture in Motion”, a collection of global essays, Professor Christine Henseler summarizes it as "a generation whose worldview is based on change, on the need to combat corruption, dictatorships, abuse, AIDS, a generation in search of human dignity and individual freedom, the need for stability, love, tolerance, and human rights for all."

Adding from another source: Generation X is independent, resourceful and self-sufficient. In the workplace, Generation X values freedom and responsibility. The first generation to grow up with computers, technology is woven into their lives. They adapt well to change and are tolerant of alternative lifestyles. Generation X is ambitious and eager to learn new skills but want to accomplish things on their own terms. Unlike previous generations, members of Generation X work to live rather than live to work. They appreciate fun in the workplace and espouse a work hard/play hard mentality.

Of course these descriptions are especially centered on people living in the USA and to a lesser extent in “the West” in general.

 So, am I a typical member of my generation?

I remember buying my first computer, an Amiga,  at the age of 14. Before that, I had little contact to advanced technology. Since then it became an increasingly growing part of my daily life and many good memories are attached to playing now legendary or long-forgotten games (The Secret of Monkey Island, anyone?). I first got onto the internet when I had already finished school, although I used the German predecessor (BTX) for a few years before that. God knows how it would have affected my grades in school if it would´ve been around before that.

In my teenage years I was fully exposed to the gloomy outlook on the job-market by the media, my parents and my teachers. In my parents’ time it wasn´t that important what school you went to and how good your grades were. Even people with mediocre school qualifications could eventually become bank-presidents when they worked hard enough. That changed a big deal and in my time qualifications counted for nearly everything.  I had much concern about my future and I think this played a big part in my decision to get the best education possible and in the end to become a bureaucrat. The same can be said about a lot of people I went to school with. About half the people of my graduation class did end up in the public sector, becoming police-officers, teachers or bureaucrats like me. What all these jobs have in common is that they offer a high degree of social security with an outlook to be employed there until retiring. The pay is not that high, when compared to the private sector, but you can make a decent living. There is a meaning to the things you do, other than to manufacture or sell people stuff they don´t really need and the working-hours are decent, so you actually have time for a family or a hobby. The work-environment is important to me. I like to be as autonomous as possible. I know what I have to accomplish and I´m the one in charge of the how and when.

I am eager to learn something new, normally in passing, but for a few years I even took some university courses in history, sociology, philosophy and literature just for fun and gaining knowledge.

Care for the environment was taught at school and the effects of the lack thereof were reported by the media since I can remember. The generation of my parents didn´t pay that much attention at first, because it challenged everything they were brought up with and took for granted, like big cars, wasting energy and so on. The sentiment to mind the environment in whatever you do became ingrained in me. That doesn´t mean that I always act in the best way possible, but at least  I get a bad conscience if I don´t. The wider political effect can be seen here in Germany especially by the rise of the Green Party which was founded in the late seventies and now is a power factor to be reckoned with, now being part of several state government coalitions and once even a federal one.

The need to combat corruption and to fight for human dignity and individual freedom has come into my focus rather late. In general I hold the country and legal system I live in in high esteem and I didn´t see any problems worth caring about in the regards aforementioned. That changed a few years ago when ever more laws in planning were reported on that to me seemed to be Orwellian in nature. Since then I´m rather active for my standards in demonstrating, signing petitions, discussions and I even joined a political party, a thing that I couldn´t imagine myself doing even a few years ago.

So in conclusion I have to say that the various descriptions about Generation X’ers fit me very well; the better the longer I live.

It would be very interesting for me to learn from my readers if they hold themselves to be typical members of their generation, or if the points stated above are applicable to members of other generations or people living in other countries as well.