[lbo-talk] Twitter: >40% pointless babble

[Miles Jackson]

Michael Pollak wrote:
>
> Is this, lbo-talk, a social context?  I feel pretty strongly it is.  
> But it's entirely virtual.
>
> I'm not saying twitter is the same in intellectual content as 
> lbo-talk. But I'm saying: it's just as social as lbo-talk.
>
> Nor am I saying virtual sociality is the same as face-to-face 
> sociality or even voice to voice.  I'm just saying: it is a social 
> context.  In fact, it's sociality may be it's whole content for the 
> 40% in question.
>

And the 40% "babbling" is probably about the same in many face to face 
social settings.  (I just had a conversation with someone about the 
coffee we got at the bookstore: "This coffee's bad.  I think they left 
it out too long.")  A lot of social interaction involves language use as 
a social act.  The content isn't really that important.

Miles