Reall Life Twitter

Facebook, Twitter, Etc.

David Berner let go with a good rant about the current crop of social networking tools. I added my thoughts:

I'm actually on Facebook. I resisted for a long time but a very pretty Italian woman from Montreal convinced me to join. Hey, I'm weak, I'm weak!

With that said, I view it as a simple social networking tool, not a whole lot different than e-mail. And in point of fact, it has sparked several new friendships amongst my friends, which otherwise wouldn't have ever likely occurred.

As for Twitter, I have a special term for those who are obsessed with it! (It won't take you long to figure out what that might be! LOL)

Being a technology guy, I fully understand the power of Twitter to keep a vast number of people updated instantly but I refuse to accept that it's necessary or even useful to do so. Those who have convinced themselves that the world needs their regular updates is truly in need of a good psychologist!

What's much more disconcerting to me are those people we all see out in the "non-virtual world" who can't seem to muster even 30 seconds of continuous silence and time to ... wait for it ... think. Listening to them talk on their cel phones almost always illustrates the truly shallow thinkers that they clearly are. I surmise that the text messages they send out are even more emblematic.

I'm not looking forward to the future when these same twits (there, I said it!) are the ones responsible for paying the taxes to pay for the services in society when I'm retired.

The Digital Lifestyle Addiction

I build software for a living, for Windows computers, web browsers, and for mobile wireless devices too. So I know more about technology than at least 99.99% of the population. Note: I didn't grab that number out of the air but calculated it based on a few reasonable assumptions.

I understand the power of technology and what benefits it can provide mankind. As such, I'm a big advocate of it. But just like there were no speed limits and other such conventions when automobiles were first introduced, so I believe society has not yet established a proper set of rules of behavior for those using digital technology.

Here are a few examples of how the use of this "product" can be pathetic at best and downright annoying at worst:

1. Talking on a cel phone any time, anywhere, at any volume, and always incessantly.
   
   
2. Constantly text messaging while out in public.
   
   
3. Twittering 24/7.

If you're not familiar with the latter activity, let me give you a quick synopsis: Twitter is a global text messaging engine where everybody can potentially see everybody else's messages. Each individual message can be no more than 140 characters in length. Here's an example of a Twitter user:

• I just woke up
• I just got out of the bathroom, doing a #2
• I just looked outside and saw clouds
• I just made a cup of coffee
• I'm walking down the street
• People in this town are so unfriendly
  
• I'm getting on my bus
• I'm waiting for my plane
  

And on & on it goes. Such insight and depth there, eh?! The great thinkers of the ages must be quaking in their boots!

Anyhow, the 3 examples presented above are but a few of the myriad of examples of the often stupid behavior of technology junkies.

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I've developed a theory to explain it: Isn't the seemingly non-stop, addictive behavior of such folks almost identical to the actions of a chain-smoker and/or alcoholic and/or drug addict?

For some time now society has had strict rules about the consumption of the last two products. More recently, the consumption of tobacco has been greatly restricted from most public and many private areas too.

Perhaps it's now long overdue to restrict the use of technology products in a lot more places than we currently do.