I used to be a skeptic, but social media technology is what you make of it. It's a tool, likely to be abused, but in the hands of the witty, the smart, the insightful, twitter is a fascinating tool. Think of it like television. Yes, there's a ton of reality-TV crap on it, but once in a while you find something like "The Wire" or "Arrested Development."
Since Twitter is so driven from the bottom up, everyone on it has the opportunity to shine by the content of their thoughts. It's a lot like blogging or podcasting (or even novel writing) in that respect. It's powered by narcissism, but that's not to say you can't channel that narcissism into something better.
I have my doubts about it still, but I'm trying to embrace it in order to be my own media, as it were.
On one level, "Tweet" and "Twitter" are the sounds made by the canaries in our toxic cultural coal-mine.
On another, they and all the "social media" are the essential replacements for tribal screams and shrieks of our simian ancestors, for whom--as for us--NOTHING is more important than the continuous assurances that "we" are still part of the tribe or band, and our rank within it...
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Am I the only 20-something who thinks twitter is a complete waste of time?
I used to be a skeptic, but social media technology is what you make of it. It's a tool, likely to be abused, but in the hands of the witty, the smart, the insightful, twitter is a fascinating tool. Think of it like television. Yes, there's a ton of reality-TV crap on it, but once in a while you find something like "The Wire" or "Arrested Development."
Since Twitter is so driven from the bottom up, everyone on it has the opportunity to shine by the content of their thoughts. It's a lot like blogging or podcasting (or even novel writing) in that respect. It's powered by narcissism, but that's not to say you can't channel that narcissism into something better.
I have my doubts about it still, but I'm trying to embrace it in order to be my own media, as it were.
On one level, "Tweet" and "Twitter" are the sounds made by the canaries in our toxic cultural coal-mine.
On another, they and all the "social media" are the essential replacements for tribal screams and shrieks of our simian ancestors, for whom--as for us--NOTHING is more important than the continuous assurances that "we" are still part of the tribe or band, and our rank within it...
Woody is right. In the immortal words of Hannah Arendt, what makes alienation so unbearable is the loss of one's self.
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