Nov 12, 2008
The absolute necessity of things that don’t matter at all.
Like this post?
Places like Twitter and comments about coffee remind me how significant insignificance can be.
We wouldn’t be or know humans without it.
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© 2012 Abuyo. All rights reserved.
Q. Should you diversify become a Twitterer, too?
A. Yes, or at least get a twitter feed for your blog for those of us who prefer following blogs via twitter. :D
This post reminds me of my favorite childhood game: “Bible Trivia”. The individual factoids have little meaning as stand-alones. But because they are fragments of something so valuable–the Book–they carry an immense intangible weight. Likewise, maybe these individual insignificants like twitter and coffee are part of a much bigger story about connection, about hearth and home, and about “my life”. Another case where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts?
Twitter and coffee comments both add realness to community. However, both can become part of a trivial life. Deeper thoughts may recede.
Agreed. Its a short hop from deeper thoughts to lightweight ones. But wondering if I can bring myself to ever characterize a person’s life as trivial.
Hi Abraham,
I’m commenting in regards to the giveaway on DesiringGod.org… I tried to comment (twice) and got an error message both times, I am just wondering if you can tell me if it went through. I didn’t mean to enter my name twice, I just didn’t know if it went through or not?
Can I email you my info so as to not post it on your website?
“The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances.”
Jack London, To Build a Fire
Didn’t Bach write a coffee cantata? If he could extol the lowly bean, who am I to argue?
Twitter is a great tool for posting short thoughts and updates about yourself. However, if you post something that people want to comment on (and it seems that that happens very frequently) Twitter doesn’t support that well. I don’t think one should supplant the other, Twitter and this blog are two different mediums.
Although I enjoy reading several good blogs, including this one, on a daily basis, I have found that most twitter feeds end up feeling contrived and narcissistic.
It’s like a guy carrying around a megaphone who periodically announces to no one in particular; “I’m shopping a Pay Less!”, or “Just waiting at a stop light!”, for no other reason than to justify the carrying of it.
I could just be showing my age though. I’m not of the facebook generation.
i think we have lost the pressure to be significant. We grow up in affluent society to be able to survive without being special or even good.
Social networking shines the light on your insignificance, sure, but a bit of hard work can make a big difference in how many people will read your twitterfeed. You, for instance, generate a lot of interesting content and so if you got twitter people would read it.
Thinking about it… I find my value in the God chose me for a personal relationship and so i don’t really care how many people read my twitterfeed. I guess that is the core issue- relying on people to make you significant, whether digitally or personally, is putting your eyes on the wrong goal.
You’re no one if you’re not on Twitter and if you ain’t there already, you’ve missed it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYP-wBaqQAI
I have to admit something: I never realized how much I needed facebook to be a better friend and brother in Christ until I had it.
Seriously.
It is really interesting how small things, like the color someone was wearing or the smell of grass, can be very predominant in our memory of special, traumatic, or reoccurring events. It is like they are the gateway through which we remember the deeper things of those moments.
Maybe the insignificant helps us deal with the significance of things better?
I wish Twitter a slow and painful death.
Amen to allencorbin about Twitter. Seriously. It seems like just another time suck. That’s my two cents.
The megaphone comment…TOO GREAT!
Dude, don’t waste your time with Twitter. I have blocked people on Facebook who twitter. I’m sorry. You don’t seem like the type who would twitter incessantly when you’re on the way to Costco, just got home from Costco, time for dinner, bathtime for the kids, etc. Since you are not that type of person, just stick to your blog.
Don’t twitter. Beware.
Just posted on this today.
Growing concern. Farenheit 451. Poke your friends. Twitter me. Matrix. Warning.
Interesting.
My husband and I have different opinions about this, although we’re not dogmatic. He thinks Twitter is meaningless. I think it’s connection.
Twitter is what biddies did on Music Man. (Robert Preston is incomparable.)
“Cheep. Cheep. Cheep.
Talk a lot.
Pick a little more,”
my entire adolescence and now young adulthood has been practically based online (okay, not really, but it is pretty important to my social group) and i STILL don’t get the ‘point’ of Twitter. is it like asking the point of Facebook? ’cause i can never give people a satisfactory answer for that. at least not the kind of people who would ask.
Twitter and coffee beside, here’s the thing.: When my grandson, Henry, says, “Grammy do it.” (He’s 3) and wants me to help him with shoes, jacket, coloring, reading a book and the like, I realize how significant perceived insignificance can be. When I’m around at his bedtime and he says “Grammy do it.” that’s the most significant insignificance for me.
I think I am slowly learning the difference between things and significances as Scott quoted from Jack London above.
I disagree with everyone who thinks twitter is simply pointless update drivel. It certainly lends itself to that easily if one is not wary, but it can and should be a way to stay “present” to friends. When done right, it is short, personal insights that I can share with my friends in other states. Dbro is right, it would be stupid to go around shouting “I am shopping at costco right now!”, but it would not be stupid if you used your twitter account to post 140 character poems. That would be a new art form. (Twitter is not that much of a time suck, either. It is ridiculously easy to post to it.)
Twitter rocks. But why do YOU need Twitter, Abraham? You already give us bite-size updates every day! ;-)
I eliminated Twitter a few months ago and haven’t missed it for a second.
I kind of, unofficially, think blog + twitter + facebook = too much… I think…
but some do it well, so what do I know?