Tweet, Tweet, Chirped the Little Bird

"I woke up this morning and there was no milk, I'm now starving"

Imagine getting 20 or so random messages like that sent to your email, phone, and updated on your desktop widget at least 10 times a day. Maybe you don't have to imagine it, because you are already a part of the twitter movement. I have defiantly withstood this onslaught on personal privacy that is called Twitter; I figure if I can not have a MySpace after all these years I can live without this. I have a couple of problems with twitter on a philosophical level and also on a more practical level. Currently twitter has been getting a lot of publicity on tv and the internet and these two articles point out some of the impracticalities and problems with the system the way it is set up now.

My biggest problem with twitter is my sense that there is no inherent purpose to it's existence. If the goal is to simply update friends on your status and what you are up too, I feel that Facebook already did it first, and has a larger more coherent platform to do this from. Also there is a little more accountability in the world of facebook.

My second issue with twitter is the idea that people feel self-important enough to believe that thousands of people actually care what you just ate or what you are doing at this very instant...and more importantly I do not understand the people that follow others and feel the need to be alerted every time a person burps, farts, or pisses. The whole system seems a bit needy to me, both on the poster and follower sense. I know the argument coming; what's the difference between that and what you are doing right now? Well the difference is, that I am not limited to 140 characters. Nothing of sustenance or real importance is going to get said there.

Thirdly, this "need to stay connected" is fairly false. As a first generation Facebooker (it came online the same year I started college) I remember when it was really exclusive and useful for meeting new people at your school that you would then meet in the real world. Now most people (me included) have more FB friends then they could have possibly have met or known. People spend so much time "connected" on-line that they actually never "connect" in real life. It's a mad world I say.

Fourth, and this one really butters my buns, it is exceptionally lame! Older people are getting on it thinking it is the new cool hip thing to do. In reality most young hipsters I know would just as soon shoot a text updating the friends that need to know something, opposed to twittering them; I mean there is already a Facebook backlash starting. Texting is much more targeted then any tweet can be.

Finally, to me twitter is like a large bathroom stall at a high school that is constantly getting updated. As a source of news there is no peer review or verification going on to make sure items are credible. As a device to keep up with celebrities or politicians, there is no way to ensure that it is them actually maintaining there tweets. There is a reasonable expectation that publicist and managers keep up websites and myspace, but to have someone ghost write your tweets is inherently counter productive to the spirit of the movement

So this is my rant on Twitter. I know it has very little, if anything to do with law school, but whatever. If you dislike this post you can comment, email, call, or even text me...but please, please, please do not tweet me. Thanks