Little Birdies

I have never been on Twitter.

Is this something I should say with my head hung low? Or, like the proud people who shun cable television, mainstream news networks and my mother, who no longer listens to talk radio, should I be stubbornly smug at my refusal to be herded with the rest of the flock?

I have no idea. Having only ever heard about the website, I can't make any real judgement. From what I know, though, the idea really doesn't appeal to me. Which is odd: shouldn't it be harder to send a letter to the world - which is how I see 'long-form' blogging- than to be texting out the the cyberpublic?

I don't think of myself as nearly important enough for someone to care that I had an amazing halibut burger after work or that my socks feel itchy at 3:47 PM.

But what makes me think that anyone reads this? Why would anyone have an interest in a stranger's angsty poetry or the fact that she really, really likes Joel Plaskett? I know for a fact that my mum reads this. When I tell her there's something new on here.

If you think about it, the whole idea of personal publishing is, well, something else. In what other period of history has it been possible for Joe Whosit to tell everybody about his cat, Marbles? Maybe it isn't the fact that someone will read it, but that someone MIGHT. You can write with the freedom that you're pretty much in obscurity, but who knows?

And maybe the 140-character limit is something that I see as silly because I am verbose. I love using too many words. But, there is something to be said about using them economically.

All in all, I don't think Twitter will change the way we live, or make anyone more important than anyone else. Like anything on the Internet, everyone is doing it. That's when it becomes a contest of who has more people stalking-er, following them as they micro-blog through the entire day. It's also become the new corporate playground. Big companies, like your dad awkwardly flailing in the bouncy castle, are trying to play it small-time. And it's embarrassing.

So, to Tweet or not to Tweet? Well, I'll probably never actually use Twitter, but I may go check it out. I hear Oprah's on there now.