I Will Neither Tweet Nor Twitter!

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

There is a new (well, not really that new) tool for social networking that the Dog is sure that everyone here has heard about, Twitter. This service is based on the idea that you would want or need to communicate with your community in bursts of text that are restricted to 140 characters long. This is not a system that the Dog will ever, under any foreseeable circumstances use.

There are those that get a great feeling of belonging from the various social networks and there is, without a doubt, a benefit to certain kinds of marketing, but the idea of micro-blogging is anathema to the Dog. First off there is a decent into the banal that is inevitable with such a limited form and the pressure to fill the gapping, sucking content void of any on-line application. I do not give two hoots if David Gregory is having a bagel. When I hear from Mr. Gregory, I want it to be in the form of him providing me with news, real news, not if there is butter on a beagle or is it cream cheese?

The premise of Twitter was that it would provide a structured way to limit information passed to just the essentials. As someone that receives over 100 e-mails a day, the Dog can appreciate that desire, but fails to address the real problem with instant communication, namely the tendency for that instant communication to become a great shouting throng, all of whom feel that they must share there every thought and deed with others in order to validate their existence. Yes, the Dog know this is more that a little ironic coming from someone that hammers out 1,000 words five days a week, but gentle read, the Dog does not do it for validation, he does this to organize his thoughts and rarely to amuse, entertain and educate. That may or may not be self-justification, but that is what is going on in this hounds skull.

This is not to say that there is not a place for social networks. They do allow people to be creative, to find those with similar interests and activities that they might never meet otherwise. In our isolated and disconnected society this must be a benefit. Anything that allows human connection is a positive, in the Dogs not so humble opinion, but Twitter runs smack into another problem with its methodology of brevity.

Brevity has been called the soul of wit, if that is true then the Dog is, at the very best, a half wit. This loquaciousness is intentional on the Dog’s part. One of the very few things that is unique to the human species is our ability to speak and through that the development of written language. Any time that we set ourselves up to reduce the ability to use this facility to its fullest; we are diminishing our greatest accomplishment as a species, as a talking Dog this is felt by your diarist even more keenly!  In 140 characters there is no room for the majesty that is possible in a longer form. It is true that one could string many Tweets together to express some longer and complex thoughts, but what is the point? Why not just use a form or forum where you can give free reign to the flow of thoughts?  

So, call the Dog an old fuddy-duddy that does not get the new, hip and slick technologies. It might even be completely true and accurate, but this is one hound that will never Tweet nor Twitter. If the Dog wanted to limit his ability to full, clearly and overwhelmingly express an idea, he would turn to Haiku.