Potluck #56: Twitter? I Say Shoot The Bird

The thing about little twittering bird sounds is that after awhile, it just becomes a pointless, humming NOISE sort of like a migraine. I guess I'm one of those stick-in-the-mud'ders who just doesn't get the whole Twitter craze. I'm all for new ways to communicate but only if there's some real message involved. Otherwise, you're just playing with a toy and taking up somebody else's time as well as your own. Sometimes I think that a lot of new technology is just our way of rationalizing the money and effort spent beating everyone else at the game. What can I do with this new $500 gizmo? I know! I'll annoy all my friends by telling them every little thing I do all day! You could say that it's sort an electronic haiku minus the cool zen and a lot less creativity. Haiku for dummies! Okay, so I did opt to open a Twitter account to enjoy the full Twitter experience. I got bored after my first entry. I've read that Twitter was not really intended for the average user but more as an internal communication form within say, a company or organization. That makes more sense. At least there's a reason to say, "I'm in a meeting with the CFO at noon." But seriously? To post an entry every 15 minutes about what you're eating, what you're watching on television? No one is THAT interesting! Or interested. I did a search for Etsy, a website I frequent which features artist-made items. Many Etsy artists twitter about newly-made items up for sale. If you were a fan of a particular artist, I suppose that would be helpful. I also visited Celebrity Tweet which was entertaining but I can only pretend to care about Andy Dick for....no, honestly, I don't care about Andy Dick at ALL. And that's really the bottom line: what do you NEED to know? I realize that Twittering is sort of "fast-food blogging" for a generation of folks who are too rushed to process information that lasts longer than 140 characters, but for my money, if it's something I really want to know, I can wait for the unabridged version. If pop culture guru Marshall McLuhan is correct and "the medium is the message," then the message is clear: Get a life....and then keep it to yourself.