Sunday 16 September 2012

The Second Week's Tweet

English translation follows the German text.

Guten Tag.
Heute wird die Serie "Tweet der Woche" fortgesetzt. Ein Hinweis: Der Titel "The Second Week's Tweet" muss folgendermaßen analysiert werden:
Week's Tweet = Nomen
Second = Modifikator (wie ein Adjektiv ein bisschen)
The = bestimmter Artikel, bezieht sich auf den Nomen

Das ist halt wichtig zu klären, weil man sonst irrtümlich meinen könnte, er würde sich folgendermaßen zusammensetzen:
Tweet = Nomen
The Second Week's = Modikfikator

Der Unterschied liegt darin, dass in der richtigen Version wir das zweite Exemplar in der Serie "The Week's Tweet" haben, während in der falschen Version es sich um ein Tweet der zweiten Woche handelt, was überhaupt nicht stimmt.
Somit kommen wir dann zum Tweet.
Tweet der Woche 2:
So now that Keri Hilson has sung "I like" and Lykke Li has done "I follow", who's going to bring out the hit "I plus one"? #nevergonnahappen (frei übersetzt: Nachdem Keri Hilson das Lied "I like" gesungen hat und Lykke Li "I follow" gemacht hat, wer wird den Hit "I plus one" herausbringen? #wirdniepassiern )

Hintergrund:
Ich weiß, dass Lykke Lis Lied "I follow rivers" heißt. Das ist unwichtig.
Auch wenn die Lieder "I like" und "I follow" nicht explizit mit Facebook bzw. Twitter zu tun haben, nutzen sie dasselbe Vokabular. Was fürs Verständnis dieses Tweets wichtig ist, ist nicht, ob sie den Erfolg der sozialen Netzwerke mit einem billigen Wortspiel-Trick ausnutzen möchten, sondern dass sie diese Ausdrücke verwenden, weil sie nämlich ziemlich gängige Ausdrücke der englischen Sprache sind. Sie beschreiben ziemlich alltägliche Tätigkeiten (mögen und folgen). Dies beweist wiederum, dass die Erfinder der Funktionen bei den sozialen Netzwerke Begriffe genommen haben, die Nutzer schon aus ihrem Alltag und ihrem Leben kennen. Dadurch können sich die Nutzer mit diesen Begriffen und somit mit den Funktionen gut identifizieren und finden sie ganz ok.

Bei Google+ ist der Äquivalenzbegriff "I plus one", den keiner in seinem Alltag oder in seinem Leben kennt oder verwendet. Mathematiker verstehen zwar das Konzept der Addition, aber die arithemetische Erhöhung einer Kardinalzahl um eins (x = n + 1) drückt für diese Mathematiker keineswegs eine verstärkt positive Bewertung (im Sinne vom Gutfinden) von (x) gegenüber der ursprünglichen Zahl (n). Die einzige positive Bewertung ist die abstrakte mathematische. Deswegen ist der von Google erfundene Begriff von seiner vermeintlichen Bedeutung extremst entkoppelt und deswegen werden die Massen nie Google+ so in die Arme nehmen wie die's mit Facebook und Twitter gemacht haben.

Bis nächste Woche!

Good day.

Today sees the continuation of the series "The Week's Tweet". One thing: the title "The Second Week's Tweet" should be analysed as follows:
Week's Tweet = noun
Second = modifier (a bit like an adjective)
The = definite article, refers to the noun

It's just important to clear that up because you might otherwise incorrectly think that it would be comprised as follows:
Tweet = noun
The Second Week's = modifier

The difference is that in the coorect version we've got the second specimen in the series "The Week's Tweet" whilst in the wrong version we're looking at a Tweet from the second week, which isn't right at all.
So let's get to the tweet.
The Week's Tweet 2:
So now that Keri Hilson has sung "I like" and Lykke Li has done "I follow", who's going to bring out the hit "I plus one"? #nevergonnahappen

Background:
I know that Lykke Li's song is called "I follow rivers". That's not important.
Even if the songs "I like" and "I follow" don't explicitly mention their connection to Facebook or Twitter respectively, they use the same vocabularly. What is important for understanding this tweet is not whether they are trying to exploit the success of the social networks with a cheap word trick, but that they use these expressions precisely because they are quite common expressions in the English language. They describe pretty every-day activities (liking and following). This in turn proves that the inventors of the functions in the social networks have taken terms which users already know from their day-to-day situations and from their life. This means that the users can identify well with the terms and, by extension, with the functions, and they think they're pretty OK.

With Google+, the equivalent term is "I plus one", which no one either knows from his everyday life or uses. True, mathematicians do understand the concept of additon, but arithmetically increasing a cardinal number by one (x = n + 1) doesn't express for these mathematicians any kind of increased positive valuation (in terms of thinking something's good) compared with the original number (n). The only postivie valuation in the abstract mathematical one. For this reason, the term invented by Google is disconnected in the extreme from its suggested meaning and for that reason, the masses won't take Google+ into their arms like they have done with Facebook and Twitter.

See you next week!

3 comments:

  1. Kasabian have a song called 'Me Plus One', apparently. I thought it'd be about being invited to a party and bringing a guest the host didn't independently invite, because that's another way that "plus one" is used in everyday speech. It doesn't seem to be about that, though. Anyway, "me plus one" is a noun phrase, with "me" as a pronoun and "plus one" as a modifier, meaning "me and my guest", or informally it could be a noun phrase with "plus one" as noun phrase meaning a guest and "me" being a modifier, the whole meaning "my guest". But neither of those is what Google+ is getting at, as neither has "plus one" as a verb. However, some people read "+1" as "add one", which is a verb phrase (although perhaps not in the context in which it's written "+1"). And in the context I think adding one does mean increasing the positive valuation, because you're adding one to the number of people who've added one, which is a measure of how popular it is.

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  2. Thank you for your comment. Your analysis of me plus one seems spot on. I particularly like the me plus one with me as a modifier - like when you walk into a party and say, "Hi it's me and this is me plus one". I might have to start saying that to people when I'm out and about.
    Regarding the end of what you've said, about "I think adding one does mean increasing the positive valuation" I think you've muddled (possibly deliberately) something which is intended (presumably) to be an expression of someone's personal positive valuation of something and someone saying that they will contribute to the overall mass-valuation of something. Though maybe that's what Google are getting at after all. Hard to say with any authority as I haven't used Google+. Obviously. Because no-one has.
    Herr Bench
    PS: Will check out that Kasabian song and maybe mention it in a future post.

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  3. Hello,
    Another thing I should mention is that "liking" and "following" are much more analogue (flexible) concepts than +1, which makes them more human-friendly. You can "like" someone a little or a lot or more than candy floss and you can follow someone intensely or half-heartedly, but the +1 (be it plus or add) is very specific and inflexible, which could be another reason for its stagnant unpopularity.
    Herr Bench

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