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Twitter After School Time

2008-03-21 (said on 2008-03-22 — implied: date said in the video; uploaded -1 days later) · letter vlog · Hank · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube · mode: Personal essay · tags: community lore, recurring series

Hank argues that Twitter, like other online self-presentation, is less about telling people how you are than about defining yourself, and creates a new in-between relationship like his with Nerdfighters; he decides to try it.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Twitter jingle; Hank is confused by Twitter; light and tripod trouble

  • ★★ Hank wants to talk about Twitter because he is confused by it. — 00:00:00 · Twitter
  • ★ Fighting light from a window and a stuck tripod, Hank says he used to be good at making videos and no longer knows what he's doing. (playful) — 00:00:36

00:00:36 — What Twitter is: posting only the coolest moments; tweeting his poops; thinking 'password' while typing his password

  • ★★ Hank describes Twitter as writing down what you are doing at every moment, but selectively only the coolest things, like hanging out with someone famous. (playful) — 00:00:36 · Twitter
  • ★★ Hank jokes that his doctor suggested he tweet his poops, explaining he has a dysfunctional colon, and then posts that on Twitter. (playful, hedged) — 00:01:02 · Twitter

00:01:39 — Twitter as self-definition; a new in-between relationship like his with Nerdfighters; the currency that's not money; Hank will try Twitter

  • ★★★ Hank argues Twitter is not for telling anyone how you are but for defining yourself through the self the internet lets you create across many platforms. (hedged) — 00:01:39 · Twitter, Facebook, YouTube
  • ★★★ Hank admits he cannot complain, since this is largely what Brotherhood 2.0 and Nerdfighting are about, but finds it confusing and asks whether this is how we define ourselves now. — 00:02:12 · Brotherhood 2.0, nerdfighter

  • ★★★ Hank says Twitter followers are a new, undefined kind of relationship, probably like his with Nerdfighters: not fans, not friends, but in between; some Nerdfighters are now his friends. (hedged) — 00:02:12 · Twitter, Nerdfighteria

    “They're not fans, and they're not friends. There's something in between.”

  • ★★ Hank says this serves twitterers, vloggers and bloggers: interaction with people who value their humour and ideas, and nothing matters more in this society than having your ideas valued. — 00:02:41

  • ★★ Hank says Twitter, like vlogging, is about getting 'currency that's not money', hard to come by; he hopes he provides it for others and thanks viewers for giving it to him. — 00:03:10 · Twitter

    “that currency that's not money”

  • ★★★ Hank has kind of decided to try Twitter, going in knowing more about what it is for, and says viewers can follow him there. (hedged) — 00:03:10 · Twitter

00:03:36 — Blurbing Book Club: Slaughterhouse-Five round complete, vote in the forum, next book Going Postal; question of the day

  • ★★★ The Slaughterhouse-Five round of the Blurbing Book Club is complete; all submissions are in the forum at nerdfighters.com. — 00:03:36 · nerdfighters.com
  • ★★★ Hank asks Nerdfighters to pick their favourite blurbs and list them in the new forum post he has just made. — 00:03:36 · nerdfighters.com
  • ★★★ The next Blurbing Book Club book is Going Postal by Terry Pratchett. — 00:03:36
  • ★ Hank's question of the day: what is the weirdest thing you would do for a dollar? — 00:03:36

Humor (significant)

  • Hank opens with a jingle about Twitter at all times of day. — 00:00:00

    “When you put Twitter on a bagel, you can eat Twitter anytime.”

  • Nobody tweets about their bowel movements, Hank observes, except that he has reason to. — 00:01:02

    “I could tweet my poops. I think my doctor actually suggested that I tweet my poops. I'm so old.”

  • Afraid a mind reader might catch his password as he types it, Hank changed what he thinks. — 00:01:02

    “So now I type my password and I think the word password. I think it's best to play it safe.”

  • After tweeting that his doctor says he should tweet his poops, Hank sums up. — 00:01:39

    “That, my friends, is a killer application of Web 2.0. Oh my god, how lame.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Twitter

Also: Projects: Blurbing Book Club · Brotherhood 2.0 · nerdfighters.com

Works: Going Postal · Slaughterhouse-Five

Organizations: Facebook · Flickr (photo sharing site) · LinkedIn · Myspace · YouTube

Terms: nerdfighter

Concepts: Web 2.0

Only in the description or credits: Terry Pratchett

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