Knee Jerk Reaction We've been talking about Twitter and whether it is useful or not to IT folks, or anyone for that matter. Everything has a use, or it wouldn't be used. And not everything has a use by everyone or there wouldn't be so many different ways of doing things. So much for a disclaimer. I haven't quite got the hang of Twitter. I've tried. Since I don't have a Blackberry or other similar device, and I don't text on my cell phone, it being too tedious for me, perhaps I am one of those for whom Twitter is something other people do. There are several social concerns I have about it, though. Twitter contributes to the growing rudeness of adults - one expects a certain level of rudeness out of teenagers and younger children - who tweet instead of participating at a meeting, or even tweet while talking to you face to face. Taking a cell phone call during a meeting usually prompts apologies and some embarrassment and an explanation of "I've really got to get this" with more apologies after the call perhaps with an explanation of why it was so important. I don't hear anyone saying, "hold on, this Tweet is important. I'm sorry for the interruption."
Moreover, I'm concerned about the Knee Jerk Reaction effect. Even with Instant Messaging, which has the safety net of being aimed at only one person, there is a bit of consideration before placing hands to keyboard. And with email, blog postings, board and forum postings, etc. there is usually some thinking involved beforehand, and the opportunity to cancel a posting or email before it gets embarrassing. With Twitter it's all out there: your immediate thoughts: good, bad or something else. Reading some of the tweets, in my attempt to understand what it is all about, I see people whose opinions I respect and seek out, jotting banalities about arriving at an airport and seeing a long line at security, or looking forward to going to the office, or something.
The messages seem mostly prompted by boredom or simply the urge to reach out and touch someone during those lonely moments we all slide through every day.
The problem is that hundreds of people will read the message. If the message is a knee-jerk reaction to something that happens, an moment of anger perhaps, it's gone. The time it would take to compose and author an email usually is long enough for some consideration of what we are committing to posterity. Telling someone on the phone that you don't like a proposal that the VP is making during a break, out of earshot of the participants is one thing. Only the person on the other end hears you. And if the proposal turns out to be good, both parties may have forgotten the negativity, or a single explanation will suffice. When the same negative comments are on Twitter they are recorded and irrevocable. What you would not have said in an open forum, especially with the VP present, is now recorded for all to see, including the VP. Not having the ability to Twitter, or the inclination, might have allowed reason to prevail, and prevented the embarrassing moment when the VP asks why you didn't voice the objection in the meeting.
In IT we are slow, considered, reasoning, logical, and not known for our impetuousness at least when dealing with the tools of our trade. We plan before we test, design before or while we code, get some requirements before we design, think before taking actions. We spend a lot of time analyzing. This works better than popping off with our first impulse. I wonder how the impulsiveness of Twitter fits in with the IT culture. I also wonder what massive mistakes might be made when there appears to be a groundswell for some idea and it is merely the result of many knee-jerk reactions to an initial knee-jerk reaction that were reconsidered after tweeting. I see the possibility for a form of electronic group think. I also see the possibility for massive manipulation by marketers and others.  ¶ 5:47 PM