Shark Sketch
It started late last night where I observed several Twitter comments about the RT practice, one which I largely have not used in my Twittering practices. I posted first:
Am I supposed to us the RT function? Is it my way of giving a shout out? What is its purpose? Does it provide points? Extend networks? What?
Followed shortly by:
Sorry, my bad. I forgot. RT saves puppies and kittens from sharks.
This was subsequently RTed out of Simon’s ironic funny bone:
simonFerrari RT @caseyodonnell Sorry, my bad. I forgot. RT saves puppies and kittens from sharks.
This seemed to catch Ian’s fancy:
ibogost @caseyodonnell RT is short for “retaliate.” It’s used to destroy the spirit of the users you RT. Liberal use is encouraged.
To which I posed:
@ibogost Ooooh… I prefer that approach. Why didn’t they use BR or something for “berate”? Can one invent new shorthands simply from use?
His response thusly sent me down one rabbit hole:
ibogost @caseyodonnell Superb. BR =berate; IG =paradoxically ignore; FU =express contempt; DT =dote upon; $R =affirm inaccessibility of the Real
Darius managed to further solidify my desire to drink the kool-aid:
tinysubversions @caseyodonnell Actually, all the Twitter conventions, including @ and # signs, were invented through use. Then Twitter supported them.
And later Christine added:
naptimewriting @caseyodonnell silly, RT saves puppies and kittens from heartworm, not sharks. Students can submit plagiarized papers if they begin with RT.
To what end do I relate this Twitter story? Well, for one, I’ve drawn a shark (Yes, it isn’t very good I realize… abstract things are easier to draw than real things I’ve decided. The coloring is better than the shark itself I believe.) for a Twitter RT visualization. I’d be curious if one could encourage RTing by simply attaching a random tweet to a puppy or kitten graphic and the only way to encourage its avoidance of being lunch is through RTing that tweet, regardless of what the actual tweet was.
The secondary topic that it brought up for me was based on Ian’s idea, namely, that as a giant dork, I feel Twitter needs OP-Codes. Certainly his FU OP-Code is a favorite as well as $R, though it seems to be some kind of register access method, so we’ll wait on that for now. But, what would Twitter OP-Codes be? Would one regularly use FU for tweets? Perhaps an FU OP-Code results in instant kitten/puppy death.
Because things like @, #, and RT are emergent practices within Twitter, I wonder what I might do to make it function differently, simply through practice… or kittens and puppies. Oh, and my use of the word “kitten” managed to snag a new follower. Strange.
Ah, well, these are the late night imaginings of an insomniac.
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