Very Twitteresting

I have a love hate for Twitter. It is annoying, confusing, disorganized and cluttered. It is also democratic, rapid, helpful and can connect us. I have spent way way too much time trying to get into some chats, read tweets, compose tweets. Why would anyone else care about my grilled cheese sandwich?

The thing is, people do. Well maybe not my grilled cheese sandwich but they care about other people's small goings on and daily rituals and peeks into each other’s mundane lives. We keep worrying about a world where we are desensitized, where communities aren't connected, and people aren't looking out for their neighbour. Maybe this is a way of communicating more effectively or efficiently. The economy of language can be a good thing. Is the minimalist tweet the best way we have to engage each other?

The 140 character is just a taste and, if you are interested and want more, then you can look more closely.

Siloam mission needs blankets.

Accident on the Slaw Rebchuk Bridge.

Tickets still left for AvenueQ.

There are real time, helpful, sometimes life-saving possibilities with this platform but, like all media, you can still get sucked into the fact that January Jones ate her own placenta. Did that make the mainstream press? It sure did. Is Twitter the reason it became such a story? That is hard to say. Placenta eating really riles up both sides of the debate.

Spike Lee just apologized after tweeting the address of an elderly couple in Florida thinking it was George Zimmerman's address. It was the wrong address. The couple graciously accepted his apology and quietly took some money but the possibilities of a tragic end to that mistake are endless. If it was the right address, more violence seems inevitable and everyone is very lucky that this mistake was caught in time. Roseanne Barr just tweeted the correct address. This is a dangerous precedent.

I am, as we speak, still trying to participate in a tweet chat. I keep missing the opportunity. I can't really blame Twitter, only my lack of ability to tell time.

I am still wondering the value of Twitter vs. Facebook but I think the economy of the tweet is what gives it an edge. The immediacy, the less-is-more mentality can make it that much more effective. The problems with it are similar to those of Facebook and Blogs. You start to check out coverage on the Federal Budget and instead you are reading recipes for placenta. It's research.