Twitter

2009

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It is almost impossible to have an intelligent conversation with anyone under the age of 50 these days (even those over 60 and in their 70's who have embraced these sites so as not to appear old) because they are all glued to their cell phones or whatever the latest New Technological Thing is that promises that they can talk to Everyone in the Whole Wide World about Everything in the Whole Wide World All The Time.

Try having a converstation with a teenager or someone in their twenties and all you get is a glazed stare as they clutch their cell phone/whatever, glancing down at it every few seconds to check what is being tweeted at them from the twits who tweet and then as soon as you pause for breath they quickly tweet back at the twit who tweeted them before tweeting the next twit who is waiting to tweet to another twit and so on ad infinitum. Check the spelling and grammar and the sheer inanity of the conversations! Enough to make any half educated person weep!

Market research company, Pear Analytics, found that "pointless babble" was the largest category of Twitter content. This was counteracted by Danah Boyd saying that "pointless Babble" is better characterised by "peripheral awareness" or "social grooming." And that is exactly what the primates do. What does that tell us about where we are going?

The Roman Empire was lost to the so-called barbarians while the Romans were tweeting at the Colloseum! And now the masses are tweeting while the West is declining. History repeats itself.

In reality Twitter is not a benign business at all. While giving people an opportunity to babble mindlessly, Twitter collects personally identifiable information about its users and shares it with third parties, and they consider the information to be an asset reserving the right to sell it if the company changes hands, which it will of course when the price is right. And who will buy it? How Big Brother, Big Business and Big Bullies must be laughing as the twits tweet right into their hands and pockets!

On second thoughts this may be A Good Thing because how else is one going to keep track of billions of people in order to feed and clothe them and ultimately to control them politically and then to persuade them to buy all the stuff that is being manufactured to provide employment for the ever growing populations around the world? Hmmmmmmmm ......