Why I don’t use Twitter

The library of congress has decided to store tweets. My knee-jerk reaction to hearing this was that it is a bad idea, but decided to let it settle in some and see if good may come of it.

Now that I’ve had some time to think about it, I still think it’s a bad idea.

I’ve heard the argument that tweets provide a snapshot of the collective psyche of people (at least those that use twitter) during a given time to be mined for information at some point in the future. I wonder, though, if there really is value there. Take, for example, the earthquake that happened in Japan. The people that actually experienced it were not (for the most part) twittering. And even if they were, the infrastructure that allowed for postings like that were falling down around them, so how many actually got through? As for the people that did not experience it, they were watching it on the news and twittering their impressions, which were based upon the impressions of the newscasters, so the tweets could be considered a bit redundant.

Tweeting has long bothered more because of where its origins lie than anything else. I’ve long contended that things like twitter arose because our society has made content consumption a priority. So much so that existing content is being consumed more rapidly than can be professionally produced. As such, new avenues to give voices to anyone with a keypad enables massive amounts of content generation to happen. I don’t see a problem with granting a voice to anyone and everyone who has something to say, but while brevity may be the soul of wit, there is more that need apply.

There must still be wit.

I’ll admit I can be a bit of a luddite when it comes to mobile communication. I did not appreciate the benefit of text messaging until reading an article about an inexperienced doctor in Africa needing to perform an amputation to save a man’s life getting the notes from a more experience doctor in London via text message. The information needed to be clear and concise, which is not easily conveyed over a bad voice connection stretching halfway across the world. In the same vein, it is very possible that Twitter has merit to it that I’ve not found. But as with any tool, there is the useful, practical purpose, and then there’s what everyone actually uses it for. Cell phones to call people in the next room. Facebook to keep up with people you see every day. These technologies have enormous benefit, but we use them to make our experiences more shallow, more brief, less meaningful.

And now the library of Congress is going to keep a record of it.