Tweetgate II, the re-tweet...

[The Artist.....]

Brogan
When did JB start following Perez? Are you sure it was after the announcement of Perez as a team-mate? It's perfectly possible that Perez is just a mate! - JB has a very select set of F1 drivers who he follows - some drivers follow all the other drivers, other don't bother! It's no secret that JB and LH aren't friends, but it is disingenuous to state that this is all in 1 direction!

This need never have been an issue anyway - a journo made a big thing of it a week ago, realised he was wrong and shut up... LH then raked it up again, and again was made to look silly! A quick , quiet word with his fellow McLaren employee would have stopped all of this silliness at its source! Sadly, the twitter generation seem to fly off on the keyboard the second a thought comes into their heads!

 

[Quintessentially]

More ammo for the critics.

 

[Brogan]

Brogan
When did JB start following Perez? Are you sure it was after the announcement of Perez as a team-mate?

According to those who monitor this sort of thing, yes.
I don't use Twitter personally so I wouldn't know and couldn't care less.

 

[The Artist.....]

Quintessentially
I have long believed that twitter really does people much more harm than good! Very few individuals regularly tweet anything profound - yet several celebrities make absolute fools of themselves... For his foot in mouth twitter tales, i'd actually group Lewis Hamilton with people such as Joey Barton - ok, so the content of Hamilton's tweets bear no comparison to the vile self-important crap that Joey Barton comes out with, BUT the common factor is that every so often, they'll tweet something that just should never be said - certainly not in a public forum!

 

[Incubus]

I don't have a twitter account but I admit I recently started reading through Drivers' tweets for comic relief. Always mildly fun to see drivers say daft things. There was that Hamilton telemetry mallarkey. Then there is Alonso and his reflections that belong firmly in the Eric Cantona school of philosophy (after Suzuka: "If the enemy thinks in the ocean fight him in the mountains! If he thinks in the mountains fight him in the ocean!" )...

Then there is Raikkonen who will "try to be on here a bit more often". Posted in January. Hasn't bothered since.

 

[Speshal]

I'm only on it for real time sports updates

 

[Quintessentially]

Quintessentially
I have long believed that twitter really does people much more harm than good! Very few individuals regularly tweet anything profound - yet several celebrities make absolute fools of themselves... For his foot in mouth twitter tales, i'd actually group Lewis Hamilton with people such as Joey Barton - ok, so the content of Hamilton's tweets bear no comparison to the vile self-important crap that Joey Barton comes out with, BUT the common factor is that every so often, they'll tweet something that just should never be said - certainly not in a public forum!

I'm sure there are better comparisons for Hamilton's indiscretions than Joey Barton. As you say, there are vast differences in content. 99% of what Lewis writes is actually in line with what twitter aims to achieve unlike Barton's who generally uses it as a political tool. Unfortunately the other 1% gives ammo for his critics to latch on. Sorry I don't see any comparisons here. In fact foot in mouth twitter tales as you put it has become common ground for many sportsmen, including Rio Ferdinand and more recently Ashley Cole.

 

[The Artist.....]

in fact foot in mouth twitter tales as you put it has become common ground for many sportsmen, including Rio Ferdinand and more recently Ashley Cole.

....Which is why I'm amazed that their employers don't have it written into their contracts that they shouldn't use such social media!

Twittering ends in trouble!

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Twittering is a form of communication like any other therefor "twittering communication ends in trouble". Teams can employ and police social media policies as with all other communication policies but drivers have been just as likely to say things which are not in the teams interests to journalists and pundits.

 

[The Artist.....]

ExtremeNinja...

Whilst I can empathise with your sentiments, it is certainly true that Twitter means that there is a very rapid dissemination of anyone's thoughts, the second they write them! People seem to forget that Twitter is completely public when they write things, particularly when they are written in haste.

• An individual who is angry, when locked in a room on his own is unlikely to convey that anger to anyone else.
• An individual who is angry, when locked in a room on his own with a mobile phone and a twitter account can convey that anger across the world in less than a second!

As such - why make it easy for journos to pick up stories???

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

So is the collective noun for those that use twitter a 'bunch of twits'?

 

[The Artist.....]

So is the collective noun for those that use twitter a 'bunch of twits'?

I thought it was usually something far more offensive

 

[teabagyokel]

As ExtremeNinja says, the problem is not Twitter. Any form of new media tends to be criticised wildly - radio, TV, the internet, everything has had to cope with this. The problem is, simply, people. How many of you think you'd respect Ashley Cole or Joey Barton without Twitter? There are enough drivers on Twitter to show you can do it without causing controversy.

 

[Incubus]

I think the biggest "problem" is a million people thinking it is a problem at all. When it really isn't.

When you think about the actual thing it's like, well you know, "big deal. So what?"

 

[Quintessentially]

There are enough drivers on Twitter to show you can do it without causing controversy.

If only they were getting the same level of attention. Immediately after Grosjean's ban, one of Renault engineers posted a load of rubbish about the incident but not many cared. Off topic Ashely Cole is one of the best left backs this country has ever produced and at one point was the best in the world. In this regard, he gets my respect.

 

[Incubus]

If only they were getting the same level of attention

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I think you'll find they are. You are talking about a WORDLwide medium and giving it a national angle.

 

[riskitall]

twitter is a fairly new thing.
i think some highly respected sportsman and women of the past,if twitter existed back then would have caused alot of controversey on twitter too.
it wasnt a big deal what lewis did,but its been made a big deal in the f1 world.
he shouldnt have done it just for that reason alone.he should have spoken to jenson about it.and why did he decide to check to see if button was following him anyway?
he should forget about twitter and just focus on the championship.he can still win the championship,.he first has to win on sunday.ive got a feeling he'll have more problems tho.hope im wrong.

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

I guess people should ask themselves what they would be more embarrassed about: one or two daft tweets, or a series of stupid driving moves which regularly take out title contenders at the first corner?

 

[Jen]

Personally, I'd be ashamed of both

 

[Quintessentially]

If only they were getting the same level of attention

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I think you'll find they are. You are talking about a WORDLwide medium and giving it a national angle.

Some tweets are given more attention than others for obvious reasons and this is very much driven by the national media of the respective driver. I didn't think this was debatable.