Rohan Naravane – The Metrognome

Why I think Twitter is better than Facebook

Twitter is better for use than Facebook, and ease of use and a wider scope for communication are just extras.

by Rohan Naravane

Social networks play an important role in today’s hyper-connected life. I scored my current and previous job thanks to being able to communicate with people over Facebook and Twitter. I’m not a big Social Networker — the only reason I moved to Facebook is because everybody I knew stopped “hanging out” on Orkut. I witnessed the transition of Facebook from being the network for cool people to now being treated as an unavoidable nuisance by many.

I admit I joined the Twitter party pretty late; I’d initially failed to understand what all the fuss about typing 140 characters was. But now that I’m aboard, I see myself distancing myself from Facebook. Honestly, nowadays I’m merely just a participant to photos I’m tagged in. Or the posts I want to un-tag myself from. These are my explorations as to why I found Twitter to be, a better social network than Facebook.

1) You don’t have to follow everybody

Many people I remotely know are on Facebook, and they’re all on my friend list. Every time I look at my News Feed, not a day goes by when I’ve not come across at least one of the following posts:

a) Sensitive emotional quotes

b) Poorly-executed memes

c) Religious quotes

d) A no-holds-barred upload of the entire DCIM folder of a digital camera

e) Images of a cancer-stricken child pleading for your share so that Facebook can give it a dollar.

Now I don’t want to be a mean person and unfriend them. The good thing about Twitter is, if you like, you follow, else you don’t. I thankfully haven’t come across people angry at me for not following them on Twitter (yet, fingers crossed). Thereby, you get to choose the content you want to subscribe to. You know, kinda like how you like the The Times of India over The Hindustan Times and you’re not compelled to subscribe to the latter just because your uncle who works there will feel bad.

2) More Content Per Inch (CPI)

Thanks to the 140-character limitation, tweets are fit into equal-sized containers. Thus, I’m able to read more content each time I scroll, as opposed to Facebook. Plus there’s an array of beautiful-looking, powerful third party Twitter apps.

3) No app invites!

No, I don’t want to try out Klout, or Criminal Case, or Texas Hold Em Poker, or FarmVille 2, or any other app. Thank you for inviting me, though.

4) You can literally talk to anybody!

Twitter is fantastic when you want to interact with an individual, be it a friend sitting next to you or some famous personality. Not like the latter will always respond to you, but sometimes, they do, like this one, for example. Also, companies seem to take an active interest in providing support to users by promptly replying to their queries on Twitter.

5) Privacy? LOL you’re on Twitter

So you can set people into different lists on Facebook and then selectively share content only with them. But that’s way too complicated for me, having to remember who is part of which list and who is not. Twitter being the open book that it is, all your tweets are publicly available. So, I’m always subliminally aware that whatever I say will be available for all to see. That somehow makes me feel comfortable. Sure, there’s that protected tweets option, but this Adam Sandler parody account had something wonderful to say about that.

Rohan Naravane manages the content for PriceBaba.com. When he’s not writing about technology, he likes to talk about it and will ramble on if he finds you remotely technological. His other recent endeavours include getting back in shape, and marathoning TV shows and movies.

(Pictures courtesy fingercandymedia.com, tech-keeda.blogspot.com, www.businessinsider.com)

‘Go Commando on vehicular lawlessness’

An annoyed Mumbaikar declares that the lawlessness on Mumbai’s roads has corrupted his driving discipline. Read on to know how.

by Rohan Naravane

I firmly believe the people of our country are responsible for corrupting my driving discipline. When I started learning to drive on the day of my 18th birthday, I had said to myself that I wasn’t going to be one of ‘them’, where ‘them’ refers to the unlawful sons-of-guns that you come across on the roads of Mumbai (probably many Indian roads, too).

These are the people who will break a signal after a quick glance to see if there aren’t any traffic cops around. Some of them even have the audacity to honk if you’re in front of them and trying to follow the law during low traffic hours. If that wasn’t enough, some even give you a “bloody law-abider dimwit” look as they overtake you.

Pedestrian signals are the biggest jokes I’ve seen in the city. If you ever see a green pedestrian light, brace yourself and keep an eye out for cars. On both sides. You might just find them coming at you from the opposite side – they’re trying to save U-turning at the next crossing.

With all this unlawfulness on the roads, it’s not too long before you subconsciously start breaking some rules yourself. If trucks or other cars keep driving at slow speeds on the fast lane, isn’t it instinctive for us overtake them from the left? ‘Slow is the new fast lane’ has become the unwritten law of this land. It is a vicious cycle, where one group of people breaks the law, frustrating the other group, thereby making them reciprocate in a similar way. When cars don’t have any consideration for the pedestrian signal, why would the latter respect their right of way?

And if you’re ever feeling courteous at a crossing to let other cars pass first, snap out of it. You might just be stuck there for an eternity! People are so impatient; it’s as if all of them have in-the-throes-of-labour pregnant women in their backseats at all times.

This impatience even goes beyond driving on the roads. Unless there is no designated marker that suggests forming a line, first-come-first-serve is a natural instinct. We’ve been reading boards that say, ‘Please let passengers alight the train first’ in our Mumbai locals since we started using the trains. But ever been to a point of origin (like Borivali, for example) during rush hours? It’s funny to see people who are wanting to alight, standing at the end of the other side, having the same look in their eyes that poultry does when it’s about to be slaughtered.

Then there’s the time I’m in my car, waiting in line to fill air in the tyres at a petrol pump, and almost every time I see two-wheelers callously driving past me, because their two tyres take half as long as my four.

If I kept writing on this subject, I could publish a book documenting such instances. The time to act is right now. It’s time to go Commando on vehicular lawfulness. The next time you see a slowpoke thinking he owns the fast lane, keep honking and flickering your lights till he gets the message. Slam down the accelerator the moment the signal turns green, scaring anybody who, wrongly so, is in your way. Show the finger to anybody behind you who honks, prompting you to jump the signal. Let’s uphold law before the line between right and wrong gets blurred right out of our minds.

And don’t think that this is an over-population problem. China has more people than us, but they’re doing just fine.

Rohan Naravane is a technology blogger based in Mumbai. When he’s not writing about technology (http://wherethegadgets.at/author/rohan/), he likes to talk about it and will ramble on if he finds you remotely technological. His other recent endeavours include getting back in shape, marathoning TV shows and movies.

(Featured image courtesy conversation.cipr.co.uk)