There is such a ridiculous rush to "adopt" Twittering (even though the technology is years old... way to stay current, Favorite News Corporation), that I wonder if new users even think about the rhetorical ramifications of their tweets. When, if ever, are 140 characters sufficient to deliver meaning? Well, I suppose that could be enough space to "say" something meaningful , but it takes a pretty skilled rhetorician. And even if a rhetorician is skilled enough, boiling complex issues down to tweets like
Re inaccurate story floating re:ethics violation/Legal Defense Fund;matter is still pending;new info was just requested even;no final report.
seems dangerously reductive. That's from soon-to-be-ex-Gov. Sarah Palin's twitter-stream, the bulk of which is being celebrated on Gawker.
While you're thinking about it, feel free to twitter your congressperson and/or follow their tweets at tweetcongress.com.
Really, I can't stand twitter. I find the whole site completely meaningless. There is no one that I can think of that I want to "follow" to read about silly things like "omg i just got a latte from starbucks" & whatnot, especially not Sarah Palin. Well maybe for entertainment reasons. Twitter is just the current trend just like Myspace um...4 or 5 years ago (it may be older) & it will get boring just like how myspace is now. So I say death to twitter!
ReplyDelete& no 140 characters isnt enough...
I find it funny that Governors Palin and Schwarzenegger even have twitter accounts.They are political "leaders" "following" public trends. Real world issues definitely can not be addressed in 140 characters, someone please get memos out to the governors please. It is for sure dangerous to even mention those issues on twitter but I guess we have to remember that even though they are public figures they are also human...
ReplyDeleteI am a lover of the new "so called" Myspace and Facebook site "Twitter". However, the issue has become a problem in the school system in highschools. Im sure some of you the recall the time when Myspace and Facebook were so popular for the young adult eye. The sites clearly states that there both a social network for meeting and networking for yourself as well as for others; however Twitter is a little different. Twitter is just constant status updating to keep others informed about what is going on in the world and for others just keeping their friends informed on what they are doing in a certain time frame. A conservative would say,"Now really, who spends their precious time constantly on the computer updating their status when you could be doing better things with your precious time?" A liberalist, like myself, would say, "I could care less about what you say because I already have an issue with Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace being blocked for the students. Its really stupid in class you are supposed to be taught how to think and not what to think. Just because the "Administration" views these sites as a "problem". It's funny that the "Administration" have a problem with it, but teachers that work for them have Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter. Some teachers, use the site to communicate with there students and to mingle with classmates that they haven't seen in decades. In closing, if the point of teaching students is to educate and prepare them for the future and you are constantly telling students to stand up for what they believe in, then why block sites which give students an opportunity speak their mind freely through the internet
ReplyDeleteAlicia Hunter
I agree, i dont really like the whole twitter site. I feel that it is basically a re-run over all the site that has been put out in the world, such as myspace,facebook, etc. I haven't really been on twitter but in fact my sister has one and I just find it boring and very pointless to have. I heard on the radio that people were getting hook on the site twitter i really don't see how because all it is, is a useless site that will be upgraded to something else in the next couple of years.
ReplyDeleteby Ieesha gatson
I only look at twitter to get a quick headline of events in those I am following. Twitter should not be used to write a blog, because every character adds to your maximum of 140 words. So in reality, if you are trying to make a poignant point, the whole section might have to be a run-on sentence. I only uses twitter to see the news headlines, and stay current with breaking news. My life is just not that exciting to broadacast my wherabouts during the course of the day. However, Rev. Run does manage to drop little perals of encouragement on his twitter page.
ReplyDeleteIt's evident we're moving forward in a technology based society and it's very important for politicians to stay up to date with the times, but the "non-formal" approach of "tweeting" about very formal and important political issues seems a little elementary so to speak. I understand the need to reach out and educate those that are unaware of serious topics; and let's be honest, most those that are tweeting, aren't watching CNN or Dateline or Larry King Live.(Maybe more so now with the whole Chris Brown apology and Kanye West ordeal, which I'm sure will be a topic of discussion since Obama's name calling incident.) But it has become an epedemic of sorts and just goes to show that the expected level of professionalism in our governmental positions has decreased. I agree that 140 words may be enough to express a meaningful thought but not hardly enough to thoroughly discuss any political topic. In most cases political topics cant even be explained, let alone argued, with 140 words. It really just puts a perspective on our governmental representatives in my eyes.
ReplyDeleteBy Erik Loftin