Twitter. Tweep. @reply. Lately, it seems that I’ve been hearing these strange words all over the place.
First, I hear that Jennifer Aniston and John Mayer broke up because Twitter was the “other woman” in their relationship. Then, I hear Barbara Walters debate the usefulness of Twitter updates on The View. Later, I read about a full-blown break-up fight between Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson through Twitter updates. And finally, I hear about the growing need for Twitter writers to update celebrities’ pages for them.
All of this Twitter talk got me thinking, why is Twitter so popular anyway? According to its Web site, Twitter is “a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”
Apparently other people have also questioned the need for these updates because the Web site directly answers this question: “Why? Because even basic updates are meaningful to family members, friends, or colleagues — especially when they’re timely.”
But I am not entirely convinced that my family members, friends, or colleagues care that I am going to get my hair cut or that I am eating pizza for lunch. Moreover, I am not entirely convinced that my family members, friends, or colleagues should even know that I am doing these things in the first place. We already have statuses for things like G-chat and Facebook and blogs for people to express their every opinion. But Twitter is becoming a full-blown phenomenon. Want proof? The site is often so busy you cannot access your account at all.
The insane popularity of updating devices like Twitter shows our growing obsession with talking about ourselves and reading about others. But when are we going to decide that enough is enough?
Before cell phones, e-mail and social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, people had to make much more of an effort to stay in touch. People had long phone conversations on the weekends instead of sending clipped and carefully orchestrated text messages. And the time requirement meant that only people who really cared about your life knew all about it.
Now, we want everyone we’ve ever known, and even people we don’t, to know our every move. I admit that I am just as guilty of this fact. While I do not have a Twitter account, I do update my Facebook status with pointless comments like “Lindsay Huggins hates the rain.” I cannot tell you why I feel compelled to do this, but for some reason or another, I do. Maybe it is because I see other people do it and feel influenced to do it myself. Or maybe it is simply that I do think other people care.
It’s not that there is anything wrong with people who constantly update their statuses on all of these different sites. It would be strange if they were the only ones doing it. But how compelling can someone really be in 140 characters or less (the Twitter update limit)? And do we really need to know the constant activities of our friends?
As our society has grown more dependent on technology for communication, we have become more interconnected than ever. Our ability to know more about some people has evolved into a desire to know more about other people as well. Back when Facebook was a bare-bones site with only one profile picture and an erasable wall to write on (remember that?), you kept in touch with friends through quick little comments just to say hello and check in. Now that Facebook has evolved into a fully interactive site with updates on your friends in real-time and options to upload an unlimited amount of pictures and videos, you find that you can keep in touch with friends without even making the effort to leave a comment because their activity is splashed all over your mini-feed.
It is a sad fact that the more interactive these sites become, the less human contact is required at all. Human beings are inherently curious, and it is only natural to want to know what is going on around you. But the popularity of Twitter for its constant updates shows a distinctly new desire to step outside of one’s own life and somehow inhabit another. Twitter is just an extension of our cultural obsession with others, something which can easily be seen on any celebrity blog, like perezhilton.com.
The fact of the matter is, I do not need to know what you are eating for breakfast or that you are doing your laundry because I have my own life in which I am probably doing many of the same, mundane things. For a celebrity or company, however, Twitter serves a legitimate marketing purpose because they are not updating me on everyday activities but on upcoming events, product launches, and other “exiting” things.
In the end, I do not judge someone for his or her personal choice to join Twitter, but I will not be joining any time soon. Sorry, but I guess you all will have to do without knowing that I just ate dinner and am now petting my cat. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think you’ll survive.
Lindsay Huggins’ column runs bi-weekly Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at l.huggins@cavalierdaily.com.
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