twitter reconsidered

for a person who checks in on facebook several times a day -- as well as keeps an online journal -- i sure have an odd loathing for sharing personal thoughts on the internet.

as an earlier entry documents and numerous facebook posts attest, i can't get enough grumping about or sharing with kindred spirits the mockery of the twitter fad.

my opposition to the practice of non-celebrities/public figures constantly alerting others to their moment-by-moment doings has been one of questioning how much people really need to know, even if they are your good friends, but especially if they're just acquaintances.

despite what the site claims --

Twitter solves information overload by changing expectations traditionally associated with online communication.

The result . . . is that you have a sense of what folks are up to but you are not expected to respond to any updates unless you want to.

-- i still contend that it is just so much noise adding to an already noisy environment.

my feeling has been unless it's in your best interest to always keep yourself in the public eye -- e.g., if you're selling or promoting something -- the practice smacks of so much exhibitionism.

i posted this video on my profile a few days ago because i found it hilariously captured the inanity i perceived about the phenomenon. (plus, it made me happy that i didn't think i was the only one who felt this way.)



a friend replied:

I think you're missing the social value of it. If these people weren't twittering, they'd be uttering these same banalities verbally and expecting you to respond.

this made me think about my work environment -- and the nature of conversation in general.

in the course of a day, i read or hear something that sparks a question or observation that i'll share with my wife or workmates.

remembering the discovery of a good recipe for lamb burgers, for example, led me to shoot out to different friends in the newsroom, "do you like lamb?"

that's about as non sequitur as they come in a room full of people clacking on keyboards. no one was eating at the time -- myself included, though i might have been hungry.

in the parlance of twitter, that was my "tweet," my brief announcement shot into the void.

but this could have happened over dinner, in a car or on the phone.

i began thinking, isn't that how conversations begin? a simple statement or question followed by an exchange of thoughts?

despite the site's assertion that an unending stream of updates as to "what are you doing?" are meant to flow like so much gas, maybe, just maybe, what they've hit upon is a micro-evolution in communication -- something with wide, concentric and interlocking circles, tethered to the web.

i suspect, though, as evolution is wont to do, unless the site itself metamorphoses beyond random shouts heedless of the prospect of response, whatever results may be the built on the bones of the twitter bird.