Scheduling being what it’s been the last few weeks, there hasn’t been much in the way of expansive writing going on around here. There has been lots going on but, little time to spend writing about it.
Something I have been wanting to write about for a long time now is the whole Twitter phenomenon. Twitter is defined by Wikipedia thusly:
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send “updates” (text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website, via short message service, instant messaging, email, or an application such as Twitterrific. Twitter was founded in March 2006 by San Francisco start-up company Obvious Corp.
Updates are displayed on the user’s profile page and instantly delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. The sender can restrict delivery to those in his or her circle of friends (delivery to everyone is the default). Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, instant messaging, SMS, RSS, email or through an application. For SMS, currently three gateway numbers are available: short codes for the USA and Canada and a UK number for international use. Several third parties offer posting and receiving updates via email.
So, this coming March, Twitter will be in its terrible twos. Before that happens though, let’s take a long look at that definition of Twitter via Wikipedia.
Updates?
So, when those updates go rolling around are they earth-shattering events? What is the kind of information conveyed in those ‘updates’ (think of it as late-breaking news)? One such example would be the following:
responding to email after not having been online for a whole two days!
Now, I’m only using that one as an example but, I have to ask the question... who cares? I used to get the same kind of updates in email form from a person and I wound up blocking their email. It’s not that I don’t want to know what is going on in the lives of my friends and family but, I really don’t need the incredible minutiae of their days. I can’t really say I’m all that interested in getting an update on whether or not they had a cup of coffee, met a friend for drinks, checked their email or raised a cheek to sneak one out.
It’s just not that f**king interesting!
I was thinking maybe it’s an outgrowth of our culture these days. Maybe there is that deep-seated need on the part of people to think they are starring in the movie of their own lives and it is full of celebrity and excitement. Each of us are starring in our own little movie and in order to be a star we have to be out there as a publicity machine pumping out the latest and the greatest news on our lives. The truth is though, much of life can be pretty mundane and sending out updates doesn’t make it more exciting.
Let’s take it a step further for a moment. Suppose someone like the Pope or the President had a Twitter account. Wouldn’t you think someone who was really busy wouldn’t have the time to bother with this crap?
Pope’s twitter:
4 hours ago - Getting ready to say the mass in Saint Peter’s square.
1 day ago - Getting ready to receive some diplomat whose name escapes me.
1 week ago - Monthly get together with the cardinals for bowling.
or maybe this?
GW’s twitter:
2 hours ago - Chasing Condie around the Oval Office.
1 day ago - Prank calling Hugo down in Venezuela.
3 days ago - Planning exit strategies with Dickie.
See, those things I might want to check out but, at the same time I would really wonder about the whether or not those people were really on the ball if you catch my drift. So, maybe what I’m saying in all of this is if you are doing the whole Twitter thing, you may want to rethink it. You may find yourself sending out the wrong kind of message to the people in your life. Besides, doesn’t Twitter rhyme with Fritter as in Fritter away the day.
Silly wabbit, Twitter is for twits.
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