For those of you who don't know what Twitter is, it's basically a way to document your day for anyone who subscribes to your account, then you can respond to it. As the title of this post suggests, I hate this. Here's why:
1) It's voyeuristic. Our culture is already obsessed with voyeurism. Look at the proliferation of "reality" shows, where we watch people derail their lives, and we call it "entertainment." We are obsessed with other people's lives, be it celebrities or the heroin addict on Oprah or Dr. Phil. There are number of reasons for this, and I won't go into them here. Here's the rub; I don't care that you just ate, I don't care that you just went to the bathroom, I don't need to know that. Stop Twittering about it. Who has the time to do this? It especially ticks me off when pastors Twitter, because we're constantly talking to our people to slow down and whatnot, yet they spend half of their day Twittering. Seems a bit inconsistent to me.
2) It shows deep insecurities in the one who is using it. If I'm Twittering about things like eating, going to the bathroom, or "I just took a nap, man it was nice," then I'm basically screaming this message, "I want to be important, look at me, look at me!" People Twitter in the hope that someone is listening or watching. They do this because they are looking for people to validate their lives by taking the time to look into what they are doing.
I realize that things like blogs and Facebook (things I engage in) have voyeuristic aspects to them, so let me respond to that as well by telling you why I do these things. My blog is basically a way for me to brain barf and, occasionally to let family know how my kids are doing by putting up pictures of my boys. I personally don't care who reads this blog, and I have no idea how many people do actually read it. I blog simply to jot down my thoughts and put them into a coherent form. I do this for the purposes of putting teachings together for church and in the hope that someone who comments has something to add to the conversation.
I Facebook because it's nice to catch up with friends from high school and college, plus I can quickly communicate with some of my students who refuse to use email.
Here's the thing about blogging and Facebook; I can keep as many parts of my life private as I choose to. I can disconnect. You can't do that and Twitter. It isn't possible. And that is why I hate Twitter.
4 comments:
i give it 6 months and you will have one...
i actually like twitter better than facebook and use it much more often. you can make your updates secure and only the people you want to see them will see them. we use it with some of our kids at church and it works really well for that. just a thought.
Not going to happen Mikey.
Todd, that would be the only use where I could see it being alright.
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