I joined Twitter about a month ago and have “tweeted” a few times. I find it useless and I tried to deactivate my account, and it wouldn’t let me. It told my that Twitter was going through some things and I would have to try later. Or I just won’t sign back in. Either way, I’m done with it.
I don’t find it useful. In fact, I find it idiotic. Why should I be capped at 140 characters of thought? Isn’t that the problem with our thought-processes anyways? We have to think in short statements of fact or opinion. Why do we not enjoy long, thought-out stories or ideas? Why should we not reward curiosity and deconstruction of complex thoughts?
Instead, we have leaders and everyday people spilling out their thoughts without any sort of filter. Who is listening? Why must it be said? And why, oh why, should our politicians be using a system that turns their opinions into even shorter soundbites? It’s already annoying that only about thirty syllables can be used to prove a point. Now, we only get 140 letters and spaces? What kind of democracy can be based off of that? Not one that the founding fathers would have dreamt up. Read The Federalist Papers and try to turn each one into 140 characters and see if the same message is delivered.
We hear our politicians and pundits talking about how great the writers of the Constitution were. And there was a reason: they were educated men who used language to prove a point and to persuade people to agree with them. We get politicians tweeting during the President’s address to a joint session of Congress. Very similar to what James Madison would have done…
I think what bothers me most about Twitter is that it takes the worst part of e-mail, the worst part of blogging, and the worst part of instant messaging and combines it.: short responses to questions no one asked with no interaction. And don’t tell me you can respond. The best part of a conversation or a thought with another person is their immediate response, not what they say days later.
However, our media is in love with this new way to transmit information. Add it to Headline News and the USA Today as more media outlets that I don’t understand.
