Tweet or twit?

One of my bad habits...yeah, I know, narrow it down a bit, eh?...is having the television on, usually on shows like Everybody Loves Raymond, Frasier, or some other sitcom, while doing whatever I do of an evening.

The upside is I get some good laughs on occasion.

The downside is...well...example;

Last night, there was a commercial for whatever newsroom is run by the channel it was on. Shawna Parsons (Shauna? Don't know how it is spelled. Come to think of it...don't care, either), a newswoman or news anchor or something...basically a talking head...was telling the viewers why they should follow her on Twitter.


Seems they had a rather hilarious episode on the newscast wherein her coffee cup had the handle break off.

Hilarity ensued.

Unfortunately (?) for the viewing public, this occurred off-camera, so the only way you could learn about it was by following her on Twitter.

Unless, of course, you saw the commercial where she told you what you could only find out if you follow her on Twitter which seems to indicate you could, in fact, find out about this fascinating, entertaining event without following her on Twitter.

Now, I suppose the natural question is...who really cares?

Handles do sometimes break off cups. And nobody ever...really...cares. Even if they were there for the event. Sure, we all nod politely and smile as the "victim" (are not the listeners the TRUE victims?) recounts the thrilling episode while everyone else tries to restart their heart after it self-stops from boredom.

I guess that is kind of yet another reason to hate stuff like Twitter.

We all are already subjected to far too many boring, pointless tales we are expected to express interest in.

Sure, if you are a poker fiend as I am, then hearing about how I managed to winkle a couple extra calls from my opponent when I flopped Quad Jacks might be interesting. But if "I min-raised from the hijack, under bet the flop, check-called the turn, and check-raised the river" means nothing to you...why would I tell you?

By the same token, except rarely saint-like people, most of us are far from thrilled to hear about your uncle learning to ride his bike and falling off three times, including excruciatingly detailed remarks on the size and location of the scrape.

No offense...but we do not care. In fact, many of these pointless anecdotes are somewhat offensive that you think we WOULD care.

So why on earth, then, would we follow on Twitter someone because they are in news and might tell us the harrowing, adventure filled tale of their mug having a handle break off...or that the door swung open just as they got home...or...well, you get the point.

Yes, I love technology. I love occasionally dropping 160 character or less posts on here from my cell as thoughts hit me.

But I hate the thought that someone, somewhere, who is no more interesting than I am has hundreds or thousands of people following the banal details of their life.

Kind of makes me hate the wireless.

I wanted to close this with a big joke, because I find the concept hysterical...but the biggest joke I can find is so obvious I hesitate to write it.

Fortunately, I am not known for good taste, so here goes.

People follow newscasters on Twitter in the hopes of hearing about a coffee cup losing its handle off screen.

3 comments:

Riot Kitty said...

Funny - a few months ago I asked my little brother if the verb was to "twit." He didn't think that was very funny!

Darth Weasel said...

he might not...but it was probably accurate!

Unknown said...

I know you don't really care, but I will say it anyway. The verb is "tweet."