Twitter: The Latest Gimmick For a Culture of Attention Junkies...or What Are You Doing RIGHT NOW???

Twitter. I just heard about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah...I'm behind the times. Save it. As with everything, once you become aware of it, you start to see it everywhere. Now, I've noticed newscasters on MSNBC signing off with, "I'll be Twittering about this during the break..."

Pretty soon, I will be forced to try this. If for no other reason than I'm just fed-up of hearing about it and need to investigate for myself. Then, I'll probably become addicted to it for a few months, and then drop it altogether and claim that I always thought it was stupid. But, before all that, I'd just like to register my contempt for what I think is just anyother ridiculous indulgence of our media-crazed, attention-addicted culture.

For those who don't know, apparently its some kind of internet service whereby you can write instant-messages and send them out to a bunch of people all at once. Kind of like mass-emails but a lot quicker. I guess that's how it works. Twitter claims to allow you to tell your friends and family "What are you doing?"

What is the ultimate goal here? To keep people 100% informed about your whereabouts at all times? Okay. Maybe it serves some purpose. I'm sure it can be useful in some way. After all, information is King. However, too much information is just plain Garbage, and that's what Twitter is probably going to be used for.

There is a weird phenomenon growing in our internet culture, and it is this need to share with people what you are doing on a minute to minute basis. I've seen it growing on Facebook and, though it's not affecting my life in any way, I don't like it.

Why do people feel it's worthwhile to tell others "What they're doing RIGHT NOW???" Is it a need to promote one's self? A search for acknowledgement? A need to connect with other people?

I'm not going to get into the whole "The Internet Connects People But Makes Them Disconnected From Real Life" thing. We've been hearing that since the mid-90s, and no one seems to be listening any more.

What I'm saying is: Who cares what you're doing right now? I certainly don't! And I don't expect you to care what I'm doing right now, cause it ISN'T THAT INTERESTING, AND NEITHER IS WHAT YOU'RE DOING.

Okay, you might say, then don't participate in it. in this culture, it's kind of hard not to...

So, with that, I'm going to go eat a ham sandwich with some dijon mustard RIGHT NOW. If you want to know how it tastes, just check out my Facebook profile in about 10 minutes...

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