minimania

Sincerity and integrity in 140 characters

I wrote the following post some time ago (last year, in fact) and it's been languishing over at minim-media.com, partly because I was raaather het-up when I wrote it and wanted to let it settle and partly because I wasn't sure it was quite appropriate for minim-media. It's even less appropriate for caitlinrowley.com where that blog has moved to, so I'm shunting it over here because, while I'm not so angry any more, it's still an issue I feel quite strongly about.

 

This week I've been thinking quite a bit about online behaviour and how it differs from the outside world, and today the idea of online sincerity came up too. In particular I found an article on autofollowing and auto-direct-messaging people who follow you on Twitter, and I was really quite shocked by it. Now, I know that many people (the author of the article I read among them) take the view that if somebody follows you, it's only polite to follow them back, and in the real world this reciprocity makes sense – if someone invites you to dinner, then it's polite to have them over for a meal at your place sometime too; if someone at work helps you out on something, then it's good policy to lend them a hand when they need it. In the real world, these little courtesies are part of the glue which keeps society from falling apart.

Online, though, is not the real world. It's something else, something "other", something all to itself, and the concepts of autofollowing and auto-DM seem to me to go directly against the principle of reciprocity that exists in the real world because it lacks personal connection and the building of a true relationship.

Autofollowing, for anyone who isn't familiar with it, is a system whereby if someone opts to "follow" your feed on Twitter, you automatically follow their feed. The thing is, some people have thousands of people following every little 140-character post. I have a paltry 257 followers as of today, but I'm following a mere 167. And not all of those 167 are following me – and I'm glad of it.

As with drawing traffic to your site, the numbers don't matter – what matters is the quality of the traffic that is generated. For a website, that's "are they likely to buy something or become a customer in the future?" or "Are they reading what I'm posting? Are they joining in discussion?"; for a Twitter feed, that's "are they actually interested in me?". The article I read stated their belief that it made good business sense to autofollow on Twitter because you don't know when the follower might be your next big-business lead – which is a point which has a certain validity – and that if they've shown they're interested in reading what you have to say, then it's polite to show an interest in what they have to say.

So you have 2,000 keen and eager followers. And you autofollow. That means you have 2,000 + however many other feeds you're following because you're interested in them but they're not following you (for whatever reason). That's a vast amount of feeds and there is no way in the world that anybody can meaningfully follow 2,000+ feeds – there's just too much information. Mix in the fact that the majority of those 2,000+ feeds are going to be generated by total strangers and consist of them telling you about the special cheese sandwich they had for lunch or that they're going for a run now, and I trust you'll start to see where I'm going with this.

Reciprocity in the real world is about respect and building up selected existing relationships. Automatic reciprocation without any sort of filtering seems to me to be shallow and insincere and – more importantly – disrespectful. If you're following more people than you can reasonably keep a track of, then far from showing an interest in what you're saying, you're not respecting what they have to say because you're not actually paying attention.

I don't have a problem at all with businesses and individuals using Twitter for their own marketing-driven purposes. That's just fine. People can opt to follow or not follow and it's down to them which they choose – nobody's forcing you to read someone's advertising tweet – and a lot of business people, especially the more savvy ones, are producing interesting feeds and encouraging big audiences. I think this is brilliant – it helps them by increasing profile and audiences, and helps the followers by providing information they're interested in. But it seems that some businesses are not just interested in reputation and audience-building. They want direct contact with their followers. And this is where auto-direct-messaging comes in.

I read about auto-DM and what instantly flashed into my mind was "twitter-spam".

One of the great things about Twitter is that – in theory – where there is a 2-way connection between users, there can be conversation. Someone asks something, and the other person replies. Where there's a 1-way connection, there is information output, and in theory, the first will only happen when there is genuine interest on both sides, which is based on an interest in each other's tweets. What happens when someone auto-dms all 4,000 of their followers? It's not really inviting conversation – it can't be. How can anyone process 4,000 simultaneous conversations? Which means that all it does is reach into our personal space and give us a message that we may or may not be interested in receiving – something that could be done just as easily in a standard tweet without invading my personal space.

DMs are about personal conversations that I want to keep private or that I feel are getting a bit long and want to take out of the main thread so people don't get bored. DMs for that reason are, for me, high-priority messages. It doesn't matter so much if I miss a tweet in the main timeline of Twitter feeds. It does if I miss a friend asking a particular question of me, and me alone. So what auto-DM does is put a spam message in the middle of my private conversation. It's like having an ad start to play when you're on the phone to a friend.

So I don't auto-follow. I assess each and every one of the follow messages I receive, to see whether I'm interested in following that person's feed. Sometimes I am. Sometimes I'm not. But just because I'm not interested in that feed, doesn't mean I don't think that person sounds like a nice chap – just that I'm not seeing much in their feed that directly interests me, and that I have better things to do than find out what they had for lunch.

So in short, if I don't have time to read every tweet I get – or even every other tweet I get; if I don't know anything at all about the person who I'm following – how then does that benefit either them or me? Perhaps they'd get a small furry glow from being followed by me, but there'd be no replies to their posts, no meaningful exchange – no follow-up, which ultimately means that there's no real connection, just words. And lip-service makes no-one happy. Better, surely, to be honest with your followers – track only those who offer feeds that genuinely interest you, and use a Twitter programme which allows you to see @ replies from people you're not following to make sure you don't miss any responses to things you've tweeted from your audience. Now that shows real integrity and respect.

I'm sure others will disagree with me - if you have an alterative point of view, I'd like to hear it. No flame wars though, please :-)

Hurry up please, it's time

My parents have been gently harassing me since the end of August about Christmas presents, and now that the weather's getting nippy, I suddenly realised that it's starting to loom and I should really be compiling the Annual Christmas List (usual disclaimer: this isn't a hint, it's a resource for those who may need it). I've struggled a bit this year to find specific things, as most of the stuff I really want at the moment is equipment, which is always rather pricier than appropriate for this sort of list. If I think of additional bits and pieces I shall add them here, but of course random CDs, in particular, are always popular! As always, let Djelibeybi know if you're getting something off this list so he can co-ordinate to make sure there's no doubling-up - if you need his email, let me know...

Books & sheet music

• Alex Ross: Listen To This
  Absolutely loving Ross's The Rest Is Noise and this looks an interesting collection of essays... on pre-order discount at Amazon :-)
• Roussel's Jouers de flute sheet music - either from Amazon or Chappell of Bond Street on Wardour Street - not fussy which, but as well to check that the edition contains all four movements - some publishers sell them separately (The Schott edition certainly seems to contain all of them)
• The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau
  His website has some great stuff on it and the book looks rather intriguing
• Twyla Tharp: The Collaborative Habit
  Her other book, The Creative Habit, has been a very important one for me and this one on creative collaboration looks really interesting and useful
• The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook thank you, Da!
  Well, there had to be cookbooks in here somewhere, didn't there? Bought this recently for a friend and now really, really want my own copy - some fantastic-sounding recipes in there!
• Rose Levy Beranbaum: The Pie and Pastry Bible
  I've been really enjoying Beranbaum's The Bread Bible and while I would still love The Cake Bible, at the moment I'm trying to cut down on the amount of cakes and similar things I'm eating. Pies, however, are mostly fruit, and it would be great to know how to make good ones...
• The Unanswered Question: Six Talks at Harvard by Leonard Bernstein and thank you Da again!
  Sounds very interesting. Was recommended by... someone. Can't remember who.
• The Shape of Content by Ben Shahn
  This one was recommended by @pkpiano - I've read three of his previous recommendations (Art & Fear, The War of Art and Twyla Tharp's The Creative Habit) all of which have been fantastic and have shot straight to the top of my best-creativity-books-ever list, so I'm very interested to see what this one's like too.
• Erik Spiekermann: Stop Stealing Sheep and Find Out How Type Works
  Another one from an earlier list. Still want to read it...
• maybe something from the music minus one (or similar) flute series - these are ensemble/concerto pieces which come with a cd of the other parts so you have something to listen to during your 73 bars' rest.
• Nigel Slater's Tender, Vol. 2
  This is the one about fruit - looks fantastic!
• Structural Functions in Music by Wallace Berry
  Not light reading, this one, but so far it's an amazing book - really fascinating insights.

CDs

• New Nico Muhly CDs
  Lovely Decca have got together with Bedroom Community and released two new Nico Muhly CDs - one of his choral music called A Good Understanding (yet another thank you for my lovely Da :-) ) and the other of a ballet score called I Drink The Air Before Me. Either or both would be ecstatically received. If you buy I Drink The Air Before Me from the Bedroom Community site (linked) rather than Amazon, it comes with a digital version which includes bonus tracks not available otherwise - this would be preferable - the more Muhly there is, the happier I am! (FLAC format for the downloads please!)
• Nico Muhly's Mothertongue
  Yeah, this has been on the list for about 3 years now and everyone's studiously ignored it. Please don't ignore it. I still want it! Again, if you get the CD + download option direct from Bedroom Community, it comes with a bonus track (yes, FLAC format again please).
• Morton Feldman: Rothko Chapel/Why Patterns?
  Started listening to Feldman's work lately, but it's really distracting on Spotify, even with a Premium subscription - really needs to be a CD, I feel
• Gorecki: Life Journey
  Gorgeous CD of some of his lesser-known works
• Taneyev: Chamber Music
  Accidentally found this while browsing a sale on Passionato then followed up on Spotify - a simply stunning album - absolutely gorgeous.

DVDs

• Iron Man
  Trashy, but fun. And Robert Downey Jr. Need I say more?
• Arrested Development
  I never saw enough of this when it was on TV and always wanted to except that Channel 7 kept moving its timeslot. Now the whole thing is available in one box. And on sale :-) If you don't know it, it's very cool, very quirky. And it has Jason Bateman.

Other stuff

• Piano stool this one's a yay for Djelibeybi!
  The Stagg adjustable keyboard benches at Rose Morris on Denmark Street (near Tottenham Court Rd or available online) look great - comfortable, adjustable for short people and space-saving. I think I'd probably prefer the slightly wider version (with or without the extra padding), just because it feels a little more stable if leaning left or right much - my playing isn't that extravagant but I do need to lean over and swivel a little to get at the laptop while doodling sometimes, so that would be best but frankly I wouldn't sneeze even at the little one - ten times better than using John's squeaky office chair!
• Music stand - thank you, mama for the early present! It's the most beautiful music stand in the world!!
• Transamerica
  A fantastic board game for two players or more - used to play this at lunchtimes at LBi and it's awesome.
• File-keeping footstool
  Had my eye on this for a while but keep putting off buying it, largely because until the bookcase situation is sorted out in the study there's not that much room to put it, but it would be very helpful - easy access to my files, plus allow me to put my ankle up (or just stretch the legs - not just for the injured period!) while I'm sitting in my chair. Note that it may be cheaper in-store than online. Not sure if there are colour options - if so, black to match the chair would be nice, or just the neutral colour that's online would be fine.

Realms of fantasy

• Logic Studio
  Yes, again. Still wanting to get this. Still having a hard time squirreling away that much cash and justifying the purchase.
• Vienna Symphonic Library
  Well, one can dream! If you win the lottery, though, even a lowly Special Edition package would be brilliant :-)
• iPad
  Because it's driving me a bit nuts having a key compositional tool take itself off for random holidays in Scotland and Australia without me when I'm trying to write a piece! Plus I want to play around with ReBirth for iPad - looks awesome. I'm trying to be good and wait for the second-gen version to come out in the hopes that it might be a little lighter and possibly include a camera (although rumours seem to say front-facing video camera only, which doesn't interest me much) but it's difficult, so if you're feeling generous I would most definitely give a first-gen iPad a cosy home. But then again, I do have access to one already from time to time... if you have that sort of cash floating about, Logic Studio should probably be a higher priority...
• and, of course, world peace and a general restoration of reason for society at large and the UK's politicians in particular would really go down a treat.

Thoughts on a year of being crippled

A year ago today I was happily walking along Brick Lane chatting to a colleague when suddenly my ankle collapsed underneath me and I pitched face-first into the cobblestones. I wasn't wearing high heels and my laces were done up - the culprit was a little deviance in the paving. I put my foot in just the wrong place and kaboom. I was very lucky, really: sprained ankle, bruised bone, mild concussion, but my teeth weren't smashed in as they so easily could have been. But here I am, a year later, still hobbling about like an old lady. The damn ankle just isn't finishing off the healing process. I had an MRI scan on it a couple of weeks back and it didn't really find anything wrong, but nevertheless, every time I push it a little bit, it swells up and I can't walk without pain again.

This, obviously, is rather depressing.

But today - now that it's been a full year - today I want to think about other stuff. I want to go out and do something for me (don't know what yet, but as it's nearly lunchtime I guess I'd better decide fast) and I've done a bit of thinking. And the thinking I've done has led to this conclusion:

Buggering my ankle has actually been a good thing.

If I ignore the pain and inconvenience and the fact that I've not been able to wear even a reasonably handsome pair of shoes in a year, I've actually had a fantastic year. For the first time in about a decade my priorities are clear and I'm working towards those priorities.

It goes like this: If I hadn't messed up the ankle, I'd never have gone to my lovely physio, who then wouldn't have ordered me to start composing again as part of my treatment. The pressure of having to report having written something pushed me to apply the Pomodoro Technique to my composing, which then took off like a rocket. Since that point I've completed a cycle of Walt Whitman songs for contralto and piano which had been languishing unfinished for a couple of years, written another piano 'egg' and pushed myself to complete the largest piece I've yet written - Deconstruct: Point, line, plane for flexible-instrumentation quintet and piano. Djelibeybi says Deconstruct is the best piece I've written, so that in itself is a good thing because without all the other stuff that came before, I doubt I could have pushed myself to do it in the face of Uncle Charlie's death. And now I'm writing a string quintet and I'm booked in to go to my first-ever composition workshop thingy. And it feels like things are finally, finally, finally starting to take off a little.

And I've been rethinking what my goals are. A few months back, I was quite happy to keep the composition as a sideline. So long as it just kept simmering away and I was able to continue writing, I was happy to just carry on. I loved my dayjob and the balance seemed to be working really well. Since the end of that contract though, I've been able to spend much more time than I ever have since uni just working on music - writing, reading, researching, listening, working on harmony and counterpoint and I'm realising how much I missed it. Yes, I really do want to make a living from my composition. I'm not sure how I'm going to do it or how long it might take, but that's my ultimate goal. Now I just have to work out how to deal with the intervening period because unless a miracle commission drops in my lap in the next couple of months (go on! I dare you!) I'll be needing to find another job. Still thinking about that one. I think it'll probably be a case of going back to limiting the duration of contracts - nothing over 3 months again - so as to maintain a bit of momentum, but I'm still thinking about that one. Maybe a better idea will present itself sometime soon. I'm keeping my inner ear open :-)

But for now I'm just forging ahead. Having a few issues with the quintet at the moment, but it's just a temporary thing. It'll be back on track very soon. Deconstruct is getting its second performance next week, I'm applying for a composer programme the London Sinfonietta is running next year, which sounds very exciting, and I'm hatching some other plans too.

So for now, the verdict is 'hobbly - but happy'.