I recently read an article by Janet Street Porter about the shortcomings of Twitter. She wasn’t nice.
But then you don’t expect anything less from the ‘thinking man’s nemesis’? She’s my ideal fifth dinner guest to join Leonardo (that’s DaVinci, not DiCaprio), Nelson Mandela, Henry VIII and Pharaoh Khufu for an evening of good old fashioned chit chat. Her outspoken, no-nonsense remarks cut to the chase like a northern Cheshire cat looking to devour the three blind mice. That icy stare would turn Medusa into stone.
Can you imagine sitting Janet between Bluff King Hal and Pharaoh Khufu to discuss the benefits of sixteenth century wife disposal and the symbolic architectural intricacies of the Great Pyramid? Or between DaVinci and Mandela where intellectual contortion meets political prowess? Assuming, of course, that they can stand – let alone understand – each other. Forget the translator. Janet’s distinctive Brentford twang alone can cut a conversation like a fly sliding down a razor blade on its reproductive what nots!
So, Janet’s recent attack upon the inflated egos on Twitter who send endless self-gratifying rubbish to their followers hit the nail on the head – a real ‘Bercow moment’ if you get my drift.
And she’s right, of course. Who cares if you’ve just burnt your toast – don’t be sending us banal tweets when you should be paying more attention to that burning smell! And please, we really don’t want to know about your baby’s regurgitation habits, especially when she’s 27, drunk, and ought to know better!
Clever bird
The Twitter Bird, her brothers and sisters all champion ‘freedom of speech’. But social media and networking sites are a headache for governments used to managing information. We’ve seen the strange case of John Inman lookalike Julian Assange and his Wikileaks, Edward Snowden revelations about US government secrets that we’ve all suspected for years, and Google’s recent ‘right to be forgotten’ where we can all suddenly disappear from view.
Are you on Twitter?
There are 140 million worldwide users on Twitter, that’s 140 million egos all communicating with each other. And I’m one of them. Like most Twitter users I’m ego in its purest sense – I think therefore I am. I want to be part of this super cyber phenomenon, inquisitive about what its technology can do, interested in what others are saying, how they are using Twitter and looking to apply those features and benefits to my own everyday world.
The Twitter bird is clever. She connects at every intellectual level: Twits write anything, Twitterers just sell and Tweeters have strategically got it. With Twitter you can’t suffer from verbal diarrhea with a message limit of only 140 characters. Either you will spout rubbish or be succinct and precise. There’s nothing in between.
Except the Twitter Twat!
The blockhead who abuses the bird. The troll who thinks it funny to send vile messages. The law breaker who creates the illusion that Internet anonymity will let them get away with everything. The opinionated who just won’t accept they’re wrong. They’re all on there looking for that 15 minutes of fame.
Social media is all or nothing. It shows us everything we need to know about the good, bad and the ugly in the world today. But Janet Street Porter misses one vital point. People have a need to talk to others. And so long as others are listening, social media is the ‘mouthpiece’ for us to express all the human emotions we need to, as we choose. The world is a better place when once-distant people can now communicate with each other.
Ego
