I wrote this as a note for Facebook, but I will publish it here too.
Twitter is the epitome of vanity. Good God, people: cut it out.
This blog update contains more text in Expanded Mode. :) (click here)
Excerpted from a skit by comedian Louis C.K.:
"The other day, I walk into the kitchen, [my 4-year old daughter]'s talkin' to my wife. She says, uh, 'Mama, I saw a doggy today.' And I was like, 'Really? Where did you see a doggy?' And she's like, 'I'm telling Mama, not you! :P' I'm like, 'Hey! F*** YOU! I'm just asking to be nice anyway! What -- you actually think I give a s*** about the dog you saw!? Like that was gonna be an awesome story -- that you saw a f***in' dog! Who gives a s***?"
This is what you are: a twittering populace of 4-year olds hiding inside adult bodies. Think about it! Do you honestly care to know every little second of my day? If your answer is "yes," then you are a stalker. If your answer is "no," then you are a vain, vain person: especially if you expect me to care about every little second in your own life! Which you clearly do if you're using Twitter.
Sorry if this hurts people's feelings, but the growing use of Twitter offends me. Actually, it's made me have second thoughts about Facebook and weblogging in general. The whole thing seems like such a big Vaudevillian waste of time. Put down the lip gloss, walk away from the boudoir, and do something important for yourself. You'll be doing yourself a favor. To put it into perspective, if I told you that you were going to die one year from today, how much time would you spend reading and writing Twitter updates? and how much time would you spend making the most important things you've dreamed of doing before death become realities?
(Louis C.K.'s profanity was censored out of respect for several of my Facebook friends.)
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4 comments:
This is by now a tired old criticism of Twitter, based on a stereotype. Some people tweet useless random happenings of their day, but those people are not interesting and won't get followers unless they're already celebrities, like say Shaq, MC Hammer, or John Cleese.
Twitter can be quite useful and interesting though: I have learned things from following Scientific American, The Chicago Tribune, and Tim O'Reilly. I can tweet at Diane Rehm instead of calling in to her show: she reads tweets and answers them just like calls and emails.
Twitter is like any form of human communication, it can be used for good, for evil, or most commonly for the simply banal. But that's no justification for a condemnation, especially from someone who runs a personal blog!
Pot, kettle, commence.
You're right that there're great similarities between Twitter and weblogs. I believe I raised that point on my own, actually. You were meant to draw the following conclusion:
won't be on the computer much tomorrow. Have decided to spend pretty much the next week only going on the computer from 9pm to 11pm (sort of like I did in summer when studying for biochem), and spending the rest of my time studying medicine or doing what I'd term "productive recreation." This includes:
- baking (more) challenging recipes (than I am accustomed to)
- playing keyboard (with the intent of gradually, i.e. over the next 2 years, achieving the hopefully realistic goal of being able to discern by ear and play with two hands 5+ notes at the same time)
- reading (which I've been doing)
- finishing "epic games" like Xenosaga which have been on hold for years (which I've also been doing)
- studying Farsi (meant to save that one to be a surprise; more on that later)
- studying Japanese (as always)
Et cetera. The point is, I've only got so many hours in the day, and I'm frustrated moreso with myself than with society that I have chosen to waste so many of those hours in the last 9 years on this failed experiment that is Internet livin'. Internet livin' fucking sucks. It's not fulfilling.
That's certainly true!
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