The rise of dolled up social networking sites has also given rise to the immensely popular “Status Update”. Essentially, the status update is nothing more than a brief tidbit of irrelevant information that is only pertinent to the individual who posted it. Some examples of these useless updates include the following: ONLY 10 MORE DAYS TILL STANTON
In terms of the social networking sites, Myspace, from 2003, was enough. It served to let people communicate and bring forth information about themselves or their group. Facebook followed suit a year after and sparked an online revolution in how information was dispensed. Twatters inception was in 2006, and rapidly began growing shortly after. To be quite honest, Myspace and Facebook (alongside others) are nothing more than e-mail services that prinked themselves up with status updates, online games, and pictures. The majority of “information” on these sites serves no purpose to anyone, anywhere.
Twatter is especially saddening to someone like myself, as it uses the “follow” feature. This means you follow that person or organization on Twatter, and read the nonsensical posts. These followers have now reached numbers in the millions. In essence, millions of people have no lives, so they decide to follow the lives of others online. It also means that others who join these sites are convinced that people will, or want to, follow their lives.
In 2010, some of the most followed people on Twatter were the following: Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, and Britney Spears. In short: nobody of substance or value. I am also concerned with the fact that President Obama has an account (despite similar info on his account can be found in the news or on the White House website). Here are a few twits from these celebrities: Watched Moulin Rouge again, such an incredible film! A remarkable & romantic love story with a beautiful soundtrack; I’m starting to think that Jesus does love football; Romney said during last night's debate that he wants to give relief to the middle class. But his tax plan wouldn't. Now sure, you would be inclined to think I “cherry picked” my data for this. In some ways, you are right. However, I basically just picked a recent post from some celebrities that they put up within the last few days. Unfortunately, many of their posts follow that same derivative path (which is posting useless tidbits of info).
The problem here is that these sites are promoting the personal and irrelevant lives of celebrities or organizations, and in some cases, the people you call “Friends” on Facebook.
If someone wants to share the news of wedding, or a baby on the way, that seems acceptable (as they just want their friends and family to be aware). Granted, they could just send an e-mail, but a message on Facebook or Twatter is acceptable. However, the downside is when Ashton Kutcher posts that he thinks Jesus loves football. Does that really have any effect on anyone’s life? No. It is inconsequential. Twatter could be forcing the newspapers and magazines to go the way of the Dodo. It appears that no one wants to sit down read an article anymore. People prefer to have small pieces of information spoon fed to them and swallowed in a single bite. They want a quick fix. They want a one hour photo.
In closing, I am indeed asking people to stop using Twatter or Facebook, and to stop following other people. Nobody likes the person who just follows everyone else. We have enough sheep in the world, and we sure do not need humans acting like them.
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