To Twitter or not to Twitter, That is the Question

Am I the only one who’s noticed how so many of our species (humanoids) are becoming increasingly self-absorbed, especially the younger of the species? Surely someone else has observed this trend. Then again, given that so many people today are increasingly self-absorbed, I imagine they’re been too caught up in themselves to pay attention to developing cultural trends, even those reflective of their own behavior. (Did that make sense?)

Granted, we humans are all at least somewhat self-absorbed and tend to concentrate more upon our own lives than those of other humans, well, that is, unless those other humans happen to be celebrities, in which case, some of us, based upon the popularity of tabloids, tend to concentrate more upon those lives, perhaps because those lives—the lives of the rich and famous—are more colorful and not quite as boring.

And that brings me to my point.

“There’s a point?” you ask and roll your eyes.

Yes, there’s a point, and it’s this newfangled thing called “Twittering.”

“Twittering,” you echo. “And just how can Twittering be a point?”

Trust me, it is, because in case you haven’t noticed, which you probably haven’t if you’re part of the problem, this fad called “Twittering” has become a wildfire raging out of control. (That happens to be an analogy, which is a literary device we writers employ to make a comparison between two dissimilar things; in this instance, it’s between Twittering and wildfire.)

What is it with this Twitter phenomenon, anyway? How can a person twitter? For that matter, how can a person tweeter? Don’t birds twitter? Don’t they emit “tweets,” making them “tweeters”? I didn’t know a twitter or a tweet or a tweeter could be anything other a term used to describe how birds express themselves; for example, the robins twittered at dawn. Well, at least that’s what I thought until recently when people began twittering and tweeting all over the place.

Since I really didn’t know much about Twittering, I did a little research (very little), and what I learned was that Twitter is an online site or service (something like that), which people can join (at least people with too much time on their hands) and become known as “Tweeters” (Or is it Twitters?). Then, as Tweeters (Twitters?), they can post “tweets” (messages limited to 140 characters or less) as often as they wish, which means they can inundate the World Wide Web with their day-to-day, hour-to-hour, or minute-to-minute comings, goings, and musings. Moreover, Tweeters (Twitters?) can opt to “retweet” messages if they so choose, whatever the heck that means, although I think perhaps it means that a Tweeter (Twitter?) can repeat a tweet he or she previously tweeted because he or she found it particularly tweet-worthy.

Now, I have a question for you: Who on earth wants to know what someone else is doing and/or thinking every moment of every day? I mean, face it, I don’t even care to know what I’m doing and/or thinking every moment of every day, so why would I want to know your comings, goings, and musings? Come on, do you really think anyone cares if you just grabbed a double-cheeseburger and large order of fries at Burger Doodle? I don’t think so. What’s that? You just spilled coffee on your laptop? Tough luck. You’ve just decided that your cat is the reincarnation of Albert Einstein? Yeah, right, and maybe another Tweeter (Twitter?) can recommend a good shrink.

My point, such as it is, is that this Twittering craze is merely some profit-minded entrepreneur’s way of capitalizing upon people’s innate need to feel important and to believe that what they do and what they think matters to someone, somewhere, even if that someone is a complete stranger. Hmm, now wait a minute; as I wrote that last sentence I experienced an epiphany of sorts: Maybe, just maybe, one could make the same argument about bloggers. What do you think? Never mind. I don’t want to know what you think, so go tweet your opinion on Twitter.