I often like to bring up controversial topics (Aboriginal equality, evicted reality stars, PETA's attitude towards fur coats) amongst strongly opinionated friends. I do this not only because I love watching heated confrontations (I squeel with glee when I sense one coming), but because it has long been a successful tactic in gaining more friends and a better reputation. Whilst I bring up such debatable topics, I soon fade into the background and become a neutral, passive observer whilst these arguments take hold and heat up. At the end of them, when the opposing sides have now said things they regret to one another, I am clean on both sides, and therefore liked by everyone. Case in point: Mitchell and Izzie's clash over Bill Henson's artworks. Izzie believed they were art, Mitchell labelled them pornographic and what ensued was a screaming match across a quiet classroom, complete with vicious personal attacks. The argument was punctuated only by my meek and occassional commentary ("Good point Izzie", "Yes, Mitchell I see where you're coming from"). Anyway, the whole point is that now I am prepared to bring up a controversial topic, and put my opinion forth. Twitter, the hottest new social networking site (if you believe the hype), has been copping flack from all directions, and leading the charge is my friend Jack Talbert. He believes Twitter to be end of person to person contact, and claims it's sad that we have a fetish to know every detail of everyone else's lives. It's also, he says, sickeningly addictive.
Whilst I understand some of his points (the world's most profilic Twitter user, or "Tweeter", John Mayer posts up to 50 updates a day, which translates to one every half hour, which is a little excessive) Twitter is being unfairly treated.Why is wanting to know details of other people’s lives seen as such a bad thing? Doesn’t it makes us more alert and interesting people? And besides, there is nothing wrong with posting mundane updates ("Andrew is eating jam toast"), because don’t these meaningless things give our lives texture? I’ve also read more interesting “tweets” than monotonous ones, and if anything, Twitter’s 160 character limit stops rambling and makes you more succinct, in the way a blog (such as this one) cannot. If this was a “tweet” it would simply say: “DON’T DISS TWITTER”.