Twitterer

It's not that I don't have anything to say. It's just that I've been swept up in the fascination with Twitter.

Now, mind you, I'm not much for technological fads. In fact I tend to oppose them more often than not. I was buying VHS right up until a couple of years ago. I got my first iPod a few months ago, and only then because it was a second hand gift from a family member. I've never seen an Xbox, and only tried a Wii when on a visit to someone else. I'm still not entirely clear on the mp3 concept. And I've never been on Facebook, and am not sure I see the point in trying it now. On the whole friends and family tell me I'd be a perfect candidate for the Amish, if only they would take converts.

But I do find Twitter interesting. The severe limitation I find almost liberating. There is no need to be verbose (verbosity is in fact prohibited by the design of the application). That nagging need to pursue literary greatness that dogs the heart of every diarist and blogger is almost entirely foiled. Even the brevity of the Gettysburg Address could never be compressed into 140 characters. And so one is free...free to loose one's random thoughts onto a wired civilization that could probably care less. Yes, one could argue many of those random thoughts end up being completely inane. But even inanity is sort of freeing. One could also argue that Twitter is simply a manifestation of the attention-deficient society we have become. I think there is definately something to that critique. Nevertheless, I find it mostly to be playful, not a bad thing to be in times such as these.

It is hard to say I won't abandon The Alta Californian, as in many ways I have abandoned it since January. But I dare say that, for the moment, Twitter will probably take up a bit more of my attention, or I suppose you could say a bit more of my inattention.